Angel, Sainte-Chapelle
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Angel, Sainte-Chapelle” now? Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Auguste Mestral was one of five photographers hired by the French government in 1851 to document the nation's architectural heritage in photographic surveys known as the Heliographic Missions. A few years later, the sculptor Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy Dechaume commissioned him to record the angels of the Passion he had just produced for the restoration of Sainte-Chapelle, a splendid 13th-century chapel in the heart of Paris. Mestral photographed each sculpture on the ground, backed with a white sheet to set it off, before it was hoisted into place atop the spires. The angel depicted here bears some of the instruments of the Passion, objects associated with Christ's torments on the cross. This iconography, while not historically accurate, forms part of a 19th-century fascination with the Middle Ages.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 2001.60
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — CC0
