St Cecilia and the Angels
Paul Delaroche (1797-1856)
1836
France
Oil on canvas
205.7 x 162.5 cm
Museum no. 553-1903
Given by Mrs Henry Jephson 1903

St Cecilia is the patron saint of music. Delaroche worked in Paris, where his history paintings enjoyed great popularity, but occasionally exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. This was his first major religious painting. It shows his knowledge of earlier versions of the subject by the Italian masters Raphael and Domenichino. The unusual shape follows that of an early Italian altarpiece