Hans Memling: Triptych of Najera. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten.
Detail of the musician angels.
©2017. Photo Scala, Florence.

Four stamps representing a detail of Hans Memling’s painting, the Triptych of Najera, with an interesting series of instruments played by the musical angels.

The iconographic theme of musical angels, present since the 8^th century and disseminated with Jacopo da Varazze’s Golden Legend, became increasingly popular from the 14th century, especially in Italy and Flanders.  Initially, it was focused on religious painting, predominantly  scenes of the Nativity, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Madonna and Child. In addition to constituting an extraordinary aesthetic element, the musical angels iconographically translated the harmonious link between music and painting.

Hans Memling’s painting, Triptych of Najera, gives an interesting and detailed series of instruments played by musical angels: the salterio, usually triangular; the marine trumpet, a triangular bowed string instrument used from the 15th to mid-18th century, the lute, brought to Europe by the Arabs in the Middle Ages; the trumpet; the flute, in use from the 14^th century; the portative organ, rectangular in shape with pipes arranged on two rows and a rear bellows operated by holding the lower part of the outer keyboard and moving the hand back and forth; the harp and the viola.