Worshipping Angels

Executed in tempera on panel, the work employs fine brushwork and layered pigments to achieve subtle tonal transitions and delicate texture.

Executed in tempera on panel, the work employs fine brushwork and layered pigments to achieve subtle tonal transitions and delicate texture. The gold background, typical of Byzantine traditions, enhances the spiritual atmosphere, while the angels’ colorful robes and gilded halos add rhythmic variation. The figures are stylized, with elongated forms and restrained gestures characteristic of early Sienese painting.

Ugolino di Nerio produced this panel during a period of active collaboration between Sienese and Florentine workshops, likely for a church or private chapel. Its movement to the United States occurred in the 20th century, and it entered LACMA’s collection through documented acquisition. No earlier ownership records are publicly detailed beyond its attribution to Ugolino’s documented activity between 1317 and 1327.

This work emerged during a time when Italian painters were refining religious imagery beyond rigid Byzantine models, yet retained their symbolic language. Ugolino’s adaptation of Duccio’s softer modeling and spatial awareness reflects a transitional phase in Italian art, where emotional expression began to emerge within traditional frameworks of iconography.

Though Ugolino di Nerio’s oeuvre is limited, his contributions helped bridge Sienese and Florentine traditions in early 14th-century painting. *Worshipping Angels* exemplifies the devotional intensity and technical precision of minor masters who sustained the visual language of sacred art before the full rise of naturalism in the Renaissance.