All Angels' Church Pulpit and Choir Rail

Karl Theodore Bitter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Austrian-born Bitter was one of the foremost architectural sculptors working in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. This pulpit and choir rail from New York’s All Angels’ Church (demolished 1978) were commissioned by Sarah R. Cornell in memory of her husband and two sons and unveiled on All Saints’ Day (November 1), 1900. Angels carved in high relief, playing musical instruments or carrying appropriate attributes, dramatically twist and turn as they move across the balustrade. Above the pulpit, in an apotheosis of the joyous processional theme below, a large trumpeting angel appears. Supporting the column is a partial figure of Moses holding the tablets of the Law.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art