Sandro Botticelli: Mary with the Child and Singing Angels (detail), 1477.

The Primum Mobile: Angels

$10,000 or more

When the truth had been revealed, by her who emparadises my mind, a truth in opposition to the present life of miserable humanity, my memory recalls that, gazing on the lovely eyes, from which Love made the noose to capture me, I saw, as a candle flame lit behind a man, is seen by him in a mirror, before it is, itself, in his vision or thought, so that he turns round, to see if the glass spoke true, and sees them agreeing, as song-words to their metre: and when I turned, and my own eyes were struck by what appears in that space, whenever the eyes are correctly fixed on its orbiting, I saw a point that beamed out a light so intense, that the eye it blazes on, must be closed to its fierce brightness, and whatever star seems smallest from down here, would be a moon if it were placed alongside it, as star is placed alongside star. (Paradiso, Canto XXVIII)

We owe a profound debt of gratitude to our Angels:

Al Regnery
Anonymous
The Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust
Moser Family Fund

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