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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 367047, member: 2844&quot;]He is beautiful from any angle. I am convinced that he is 16th century.</p><p>The repairs may not win a beauty prize, but that is a good sign. Especially if your angel is from the southern Netherlands.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since the 16th century there has been a religious divide in the Netherlands. The north was predominantly protestant, the south predominantly Catholic. For centuries Catholics were persecuted and not allowed to practice their religion. They celebrated mass in fields, forests, or in &#039;Schuilkerken&#039;, hidden churches. Statues had to be repaired using whatever materials they could get without attracting attention.</p><p>The visible repairs also make it likely that the angel was painted at some stage.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the most famous hidden church in the Netherlands, in the attic of a big house right in the centre of mainly Protestant Amsterdam, in the centre of the picture:</p><p><img src="https://s16-us2.startpage.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http%3A%2F%2Ft0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcRe4igd8uA8UjKeoT0bq2AWazCmuJg2ay5mrL0utIontoDuAaMx&amp;sp=5433f3e06407bea5fa37feefc3984592&amp;anticache=255949" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>It is called &#039;Ons&#039; Lieve Heer op Solder&#039;, &#039;Our Dear Lord in the Attic&#039;, and is now a museum.</p><p>The inside, pretty big for a hidden church, but narrower than a regular church, and with impressive galleries to use the height instead of the width:</p><p><img src="https://s16-us2.startpage.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http%3A%2F%2Ft0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcS1FbRpkRmUUjHq62NIHJ_cKbB9UVUIrxskm8nzUiWdUyiUe1krfQ&amp;sp=f979d67739c87ba50ce35f257edbbf46&amp;anticache=259591" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Just an aside, famous Dutch painter Vermeer was a converted Catholic, and he hid Dutch Catholic symbolism in paintings that were sold to Protestants.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/wink.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=";)" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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