In my first year on Bleecker Street, I purchased a pair of polychromed terracotta candleholders from a workshop in Italy. I knew nothing about them—except that I loved the angels and I loved Italy. Despite their high price, I bit the bullet and purchased them. "Someone," I said to myself, "was sure to like them as much as I do."
I have since learned that the male angel, shown above, was based on a sculpture carved by the teenaged Michelangelo for the Arca di San Domenico (The Tomb of Saint Domenic) in Bologna, Italy. He installed the angel candle-bearer in 1494 and was paid 30 ducats for his work. The boy-artist was also commissioned to carve small statues of Saints Procolo and Petronio for the tomb.
The tomb took 500 years to complete. When Domenic (founder or the Dominican Order of Priests) died in 1233, he was buried quickly behind the altar of the church. In 1233, just before his canonization, his body was moved to a simple sarcophagus within the church. Sainthood came in 1234 and the church became known as the Basilica di San Domenico. The pilgrims started coming in droves—and were often frustrated that they could not see the simple sarcophagus through the crowds. A bigger—more visible—tomb was called for.
In 1264, the Dominicans hired Nicola Pisano to build the grand new Arca. Pisano, though one of the busiest Italian sculptors of his day, laid-out and supervised the carving for the rest of his life (1294). Many other great artists contributed to the tomb over the centuries, most notably, Michelangelo Buonarroti (who joined the project in its third century).
On my first Christmas Eve on Bleecker Street—it was 1995 and we stayed open until 10:00 pm—we moved the pair of angels into the shop window. I thought it was a simple, appropriate way to commemorate the holiday. I also hoped someone might want to buy the angels. A few nibbles but no bites. (They were expensive.)
Come New Year's Eve, I took them out of the window and packed them away until the following year. They went back into the window on Christmas Eve the next year—and the year after that—receiving many compliments and inquiries, but finding no committed buyer. By the fourth Christmas Eve, 1998, a ritual had been established. I was torn by the idea of someone buying them and taking them away from me. So, on that Christmas Eve, I pulled-off the price ticket and decided that the angels would forever be a permanent part of the LEO Design tradition. And so they were—on Bleecker Streen and on Hudson Street—until my last Greenwich Village Christmas in 2016.
Today, my beloved angels spend most of the year packed-safely in my Christmas closet. But I do pull them out every year—usually in the week before Christmas—and I place them on my living room mantelpiece. Interestingly, for a month's time, these angels (one by Michelangelo) replace a pair of Nineteenth Century Grand Tour bronze sculptures of Michelangelo's Night and Day figures from the tomb he carved for Giuliano de' Medici in Florence (1526-1534).
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248