The preposition does the work

Among angels and saints, not with them. The word places the Virgin and Child inside an assembly rather than at the head of one, which is a different account of the arrangement from the enthronement formula that dominates this catalogue. Titles are the only evidence a record of this kind holds about composition, and a preposition is a small but real piece of it.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1515 and gives Luca Signorelli, a Italian painter, with High Renaissance as the style term. The recorded dimensions are 265 x 193 cm. The measured colour family is brown. The location on record is National Gallery, London, UK.

Two entries, opposite word order

This painter has exactly two works in the catalogue. This one lists angels before saints; the other, dated five years earlier, lists saints before angels. Nothing should be read into that beyond what it is — a variation in how two titles were recorded — but it is the kind of variation worth pointing at, because in a collection organised around hierarchy the order of a list is not obviously innocent. The record places this canvas at the National Gallery in London.