Angel

A retable angel in flight, wings spread and drapery resolved in scrolls, entirely water-gilded over red bole — the technique in which gold leaf is laid on a bed of red clay and then burnished with an agate stone, giving it a depth of shine that bronze powder never reaches.

Angels of this kind came in pairs, set against the flanks of the altar or suspended above the niche, serving as candle-bearers or adorers. The oblique movement of the body and the spiral of the cloth are the vocabulary of Portuguese rococo, which reached Brazil through engravings and through emigrant masters.