Saint Francis deadened with an angel musician

Consolation delivered as sound

The musician angel is a specific office, not a decorative choice. In the hagiographic tradition the sound is the remedy: an angel plays, and the saint is sustained by hearing it. The title states both parties and the instrument-bearer's function, and it withholds a rank, which is standard — musician angels in this catalogue are always plural or anonymous, never named archangels.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1607 and gives Guido Reni, a Italian painter, with Baroque as the style term. The recorded dimensions are 44.5 x 34 cm. The measured colour family is brown. No location is recorded.

Thirteen musical entries

Thirteen of the 224 titles here involve music, concerts, singing or instruments, which makes it one of the largest functional groupings in the collection, well ahead of weighing, guarding or destroying. The record's English wording for this entry is a translation and reads awkwardly; the catalogue keeps it as received rather than improving it silently. No location is on file, and the recorded size is small enough to be a private devotional panel rather than an altarpiece.