Christ served by angels

The same title, twice, in one catalogue

This catalogue already holds an entry called Christ Served by the Angels, by a different painter. This one is Christ served by angels — the same words, minus two articles. Duplicated titles recur across this record: four entries share the title of the fall of the rebel host, three are variants of the angel of the Annunciation, and two entries by one painter carry identical recorded dimensions. What distinguishes them is never the title. It is the painter, the date, the measurement and the palette.

What the record holds

The catalogue gives Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, filed as Spanish and Baroque — one of sixteen Spanish entries on this site. It measures 62 x 43 cm, upright and small. The measured colour family is red. No date of creation is recorded, so none is stated; twenty-eight entries here are undated. No location is recorded either, so no collection is named here.

Service is the office, not the rank

The verb is the entire hierarchy this title offers. To serve is the general description of what the whole host does, from the seraphim downward, which means it distinguishes nothing — an archangel serves, and so does the lowest order. The scheme's usefulness always lay in the finer distinctions: who contemplates, who governs, who carries messages, who accompanies a person. A title saying only "served" describes the category rather than a position inside it, and this catalogue records it as such.