Pair of Italian oil on copper panels depicting angels

Each panel in this pair features an oil painting of an angel on a copper support. The copper support of each, of elongated vertical form with a rounded top, is tooled and engraved with intricate geometrical patterns in a manner imitative of 12th and 13th Century Italian painting, within which gold-leaf backgrounds are a defining feature. Such gold-leaf work is, in turn, derived from earlier Byzantine gold mosaics, hence the term Italo-Byzantine.

Above the copper ground of each panel is painted a full-length angel in a later, early Renaissance style. Each angel is youthful and ideally beautiful, dressed in superbly painted brocaded robes of green, purple, blue, and gold. The angels hold musical instruments: one a violin, and the other a zither.

Each copper panel is contained within a gilt bronze frame.