ATRIBUÍDO A MARCELINO DE ARAÚJO - c. 1690-1769 Candle holder angels a pair of gilt and polychrome wooden baroque sculptures Shields with the inscriptions LAUDATE EU OMNES VIRTUTES EJUS, PS 147 - ESTA IMAGEM MANDOU FAZER A MADRE MARIANNA DA GLORIA POR SUA DEVOÇÃO - ANNO DE 1726 e LAUDATE DOMINUM OMNES ANGE EJUS - ESTA IMAGEM MANDOU FAZER A MADRE CATHARINA LUISA DO CEO POR SUA DEVOÇÃO - ANNO DE 1726 and dated 1726, bases in carved and gilt wood Portuguese 18th C. (1st third) non-original angel head feathers, small restoration, cracks, small faults and defects, traces of woodworms Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - (anjos) 198 cm; (bases) 82 x 78 x 63 cm; (altura total) 280 cm Notes: Provenance: - They were part of the Ernesto Vilhena collection (documented in the collection since 1933); - They were part of the auction of the "Ernesto Vilhena" collection, held by Leiria e Nascimento in 1970. - They were part of the exhibition "Triunfo do Barroco", Europalia, held at the Belém Cultural Centre, 1993. "Very often, in Portuguese churches, candelabra angels were placed at the entrance to the chancel, like figures inviting people into domestic residences, to indicate the religious space dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament while simultaneously watching over it and ensuring minimal illumination. Those depicted here wear stylized armor concealed by a ribbon with a dangling tassel, reminiscent of Beraine's style, and at the bottom by flowing draperies that soften the military configuration. Linked to the tradition that gives them their image, since the Gothic period, with a predominantly protective aspect, they would still need, even in the 16th century, of this sign, which connotes chivalry in Christian art. Kubler and Soria (1959) consider that the candelabra angels represent "the most original achievement of rococo woodcarving in Portugal". Perhaps the lightness, gracefulness and ambiguity of the figure, which the clothing and natural scale help to maintain, embodied a profane and frivolous dimension, allowing for categorization within the rocaille aesthetic. «...» Of Sister Mariana da Glória, donor of one of them, we only know that she was elected abbess of the convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Marvila, in Lisbon, on March 8, 1753 (L. Caetano de Lima), and that she wrote a book, published in 1750, of which no copy is recorded, entitled «Fundação do Convento de Nossa Senhora de Marvila», which leads one to think that the angels were commissioned in the South. However, the stylistic affinity evokes the work of Marceliano de Araújo, carver, sculptor and assembler from Braga, being more expressive the comparison with the set of Allegories (e.g., that of the Fortress) that he made in 1737-38 for the notable organ cases of the Cathedral of Braga, «forming with the contiguous choir stalls (see antiphonary II no. 8) a set of "Dazzling luxury and grandeur, with few rivals in the world of wood sculpture" (R. Smith). In the seraphim of the central altarpiece of the Church of Mercy in Braga, we capture the same treatment of the vestments – the wedge-shaped opening of the skirt – expressive force and physical posture, see the way they touch the shields in their hands." vd. "Triunfo do Barroco". Lisboa: Fundação das Descobertas, Centro Cultural de Belém, 1993, pp. 204-205. fig. II-1. "Life-size polychroime angels as candle-bearers represent the most original achievement of Rococo wood-carving in Portugal. Two, dated 1726, belong to Comander E. Vilhena in Lisbon, and two more, of about the same date, to the Jesus convent at Aveiro." - vd. KUBLER, George: SORIA, Martin - "Art and architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American dominions, 1500 to 1800". Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1959, p. 191 "Similarly, he is interested in religious imagery and any other type of sculpture from the centuries prior to the 14th, although less accessible in the markets; just as he is equally enthusiastic about religious imagery from the 17th and 18th centuries, this latter taste being quite perceptible from the collector's written records regarding his Baroque Torchbearer Angels, acquired before 1933." vd. CARVALHO, Maria João Crespo Pimental Vilhena de - "As Esculturas de Ernesto Jardim de Vilhena. A Constituição de uma Colecção Nacional". Lisboa: Tese de Doutoramento em História da Arte da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2014. p. 332, fig. 123. https://run.unl.pt/entities/publication/c3554abc-468d-4371-af0a-4a1b9341e02d, accessed on February 20, 2026, at 3:12 PM