In the Tradition of Smiling Angels - Collections Online | Museum Wales
This site uses cookies to improve your experience. View our Cookie Policy
Preferences

Cookie Preferences

Essential

These cookies are absolutely essential for our website to function properly.

 

Cookies that measure website use

We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs.

 

Cookies that help with communications and marketing

These cookies may be set by third party websites and do things like measure how you view YouTube videos.

 
 
View our Cookie Policy
Locations +
Amgueddfa Cymru
Cymraeg
My account
Collections & Research
Departments Collections Online National Collections Centre

Amgueddfa
Cymru
Family

National Museum Cardiff

St Fagans National Museum of History

National Waterfront Museum

Big Pit National Coal Museum

National Slate Museum

National Wool Museum

National Roman Legion Museum

  • Collections & Research
  • Departments
  • Collections Online
  • National Collections Centre
  • Articles
  • Ancient Wales
  • Art
  • Celf ar y Cyd
  • History
  • Natural History
  • The Museum at Work
  • Health, Wellbeing and Amgueddfa Cymru

Collections Online

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Advanced Search

Advanced Search

Image filter options
Back to search results

In the Tradition of Smiling Angels

The Angels represent a grand presence. They are messengers, bringers of news, good or bad. They serve as a reminder of our mortality with a comforting presence. Terracotta is warm and has associations with the ground. It is ordinary and commonplace and therefore imparts a sense of belonging. This contrasts with the use of gold which carries meaning of high value and status. This work explores the idea of the importance of the ordinary existing alongside with the extraordinary' (Claire Curneen).

Figure group, terracotta, comprising two winged angels standing beside a tree each on its own irregularly modelled base shaped to fit closely together, the left figure (viewer's left) with its right leg against a tree stump, its left arm straight down at its side, its right arm bent at the elbow, its head turned to its left and slightly downwards, the right figure leaning against a tree at its right side, both arms bent at the elbow with the hands nearly meeting, its head turned to its right and slightly downwards, areas of dripped and dipped gold lustre round the feet, on the fingers, faces, wings, on the right figure's lower abdomen, on the branches of the tree.

In the Tradition of Smiling Angels
Image: © Claire Curneen/Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales
  Zoom / More Images (5)

Collection Area

Art

Item Number

NMW A 39104

Measurements

Height (cm): 78
Width (cm): 50
Depth (cm): 29.3
Height (in): 30
Width (in): 19
Depth (in): 11

Categories

Studio ceramics Ceramics Applied Art Craft Applied Art Celf ar y Cyd (100 Artworks) Angel Nude Gold Published online (Applied Art) CADP content Woman Artist CADP random Active in the 21st Century
Comments are currently unavailable. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Related Items

Art

Pot

NMW A 39121
More information
Art

Caesar's Plume

NMW A 29401
More information
Art

Vessel sequence: Mad March

NMW A 51682
More information
Art

Dish

NMW A 37264
More information

Site Map

Amgueddfa Cymru

Amgueddfa Cymru

  • Visiting
  • Collections & Research
  • Learn
  • Blog
  • Support Us
  • Shop
  • Venue Hire

Our Museums

  • National Museum Cardiff
  • St Fagans National Museum of History
  • National Waterfront Museum
  • Big Pit National Coal Museum
  • National Slate Museum
  • National Wool Museum
  • National Roman Legion Museum

Connect With Us

  • Contact Us
  • Get Involved
  • Join the Mailing List
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Corporate

  • About Us
  • Jobs
  • Press Office
  • Picture Library
  • National Collections Centre
  • Working with Others
  • Accessibility statement
  • Cookies
  • Copyright
Sponsored by Welsh Government
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Charity No. 525774
× ❮ ❯