Melozzo da Forlì, Angelo Musicante with viola

Description

The Musician Angels are a group of detached frescoes by Melozzo from Forlì, datable to 1472, or, according to others, to 1478-1480, and from the vault of the apse of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome. The subject of the fresco decoration was the Ascension of Christ. The figure of Christ was so well highlighted and so admirable was he the effect of the foreshortening, which the Redeemer seemed to "leap through the time". He was surrounded by musician angels, apostles and other figures, all in a perspective "from bottom to top", that is, from bottom to top. The figures are monumental and integrate illusionistically with the background. The clear light that soaks the colors and lightens the shadows, together with the solemn volumes, derive from the models of Piero della Francesca, softened, however, by a greater naturalness, especially in the portraits, which was typical of the painter from Forlì.