Anglo-Saxon Painted Angel Gabriel

The Guardian reported that builders, accompanied by guardian archaeologists, removed part of the floor in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral and discovered an exquisitely carved limestone angel. The angel was found in three pieces, and is missing part of his robe.

The discovery of this early ninth century sculpture is exciting, not only because it’s a lovely piece of sculpture, but because we don’t have much Anglo-Saxon era sculpture, and because this one retains a fair amount of the original paint, as you can see from the image to the right. There’s some speculation that the angel, identified as
Gabriel (I suspect because he seems to be carrying a staff, a mark of the messenger, one of Gabriel’s functions), is the left panel of an Annunciation scene, but no other sculptures have been found. I’m particularly delighted by this discovery because while I “knew” that medieval sculptures of this sort were usually painted, it’s quite lovely to actually be able to see the colors.

Update 2/27/2006: Even the Parthenon was painted, so why not an angel from the the tomb of St. Chad?

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