Author: Clara Erskine Clement
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ISBN: 978-1-78160-953-8
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“When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts”
B
Baciccio (Giovanni Battista Gaulli)
Baldovinetti, Alesso
Bartolomeo, Fra
Bartolomeo, Fra
Blake, William
Botticelli, Sandro (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi)
Botticelli, Sandro (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi)
Botticelli, Sandro (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi)
Botticelli, Sandro (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi)
Botticini, Francesco
Botticini, Francesco
Boucher, François
Bourdon, Sébastien
Broederlam, Melchior
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter I
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter I
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter I
Buoninsegna (di), Duccio
C
Campin, Robert (Master of Flémalle)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)
Carpaccio, Vittore
Carracci, Annibale
Christus, Petrus
Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo)
Correggio (Antonio Allegri)
Credi (di), Lorenzo
Crivelli, Carlo
D/E/F
David, Gérard
Eyck (van), Jan
Fabriano (da), Gentile
Fouquet, Jean
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Francesca (della), Piero
Froment, Nicolas
G
Gaddi, Agnolo
Giordano, Luca
Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone
Goes (van der), Hugo
Greco (el) (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
Grien, Hans Baldung
Grien, Hans Baldung
Grünewald, Matthias Gothart
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
I/L
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Lanfranco, Giovanni
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Lippi, Filippino (Fra)
Lippi, Filippo (Fra)
Lippi, Filippo (Fra)
Liss, Johann
Lochner, Stephan
Lorenzetti, Ambrogio
M
Mantegna, Andrea
Mantegna, Andrea
Mantegna, Andrea
Mantegna, Andrea
Martini, Simone
Martini, Simone
Martino (di), Ottaviano Nelli
Masaccio, Tommaso
Masaccio, Tommaso
Master of Hohenfurth
Memling, Hans
Memling, Hans
Memmi, Lippo
Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti)
Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti)
Monaco, Lorenzo
Murillo, Bartolomé Estebán Perez
Murillo, Bartolomé Estebán Perez
Murillo, Bartolomé Estebán Perez
P
Pacheco, Francisco
Pacino (di), Matteo
Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Mazzola)
Pinturicchio, Bernardino
Poussin, Nicolas
Pozzo, Andrea
R
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Rembrandt van Rijn, Harmensz
Reni, Guido
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Rottenhammer, Hans
Rubens, Peter Paul
Rubens, Peter Paul
Rubens, Peter Paul
S
Saraceni, Carlo
Sarto, Andrea del
Sarto, Andrea del
Stella, Jacques
T/V
Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
Troger, Paul
Velázquez, Dieg
Velázquez, Dieg
Veronese (Paolo Caliari)
Introduction
Angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, and all the glorious hosts of heaven were a fruitful source of inspiration to the oldest painters and sculptors. The Almighty declared to Job that the creation of the world was welcomed with shouts of joy by “all the sons of God”, and the story of the words and works of the angels written in the Scriptures from the placement of the cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden to the worship of the angel by John in the last chapter of Revelation, presents them to us as heavenly guides, consolers, protectors, and chastisers of human beings.
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Madonna and Child Enthroned with Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo) Tempera on wood panel, 133 x 81 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
What study is more appealing than that of the angels or more interesting to observe than the manner in which the artists of various nations and periods have expressed their ideas concerning these celestial messengers of God? What more fascinating, more stimulating to the imagination and further removed from the exhausting tension of our day and generation?
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Rucellai Madonna Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1285 Tempera on wood panel, 450 x 290 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
The Old Testament presents angels as an innumerable host, discerning good and evil by reason of superior intelligence, and without passion following the will of God. While they have the power to slay, the force is only exercised upon the command of the Almighty, and not until after the Captivity do we read of evil angels who work wickedness among men.
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Flight into Egypt Giotto di Bondone, 1304-1306 Fresco, 200 x 185 cm Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua |
The angels of the New Testament, while exempt from need and suffering, have sympathy for human sorrow, rejoice over repentance of sin, attend to prayerful souls, and escort the spirits of the just to heaven when the earthly life has passed. However it is highly unlikely that scriptural teaching concerning angels would encourage a universal interest in their representation, and the personal sympathy with it, which is commonly shared by all sorts and conditions of men, did they not cherish a belief consciously or otherwise that beings superior to themselves exist, and employ their super-human powers for the blessing of our race, and for the welfare of individuals.
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Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà) Giotto di Bondone, c. 1310 Tempera on wood panel, 325 x 204 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
As early as the fourth century, the Christian Church had developed a profound belief in the existence of both good and evil angels, the former persuading human beings to pursue good and forsake evil, the latter luring human beings to sin and indulgence. This faith is devoutly maintained in the writings of the Fathers of the Church, in which we are also taught that angelic aid may be invoked in our need, and that a consciousness of the abiding presence of celestial beings should be a supreme solace to human sorrow and suffering.
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Maestà (detail) Simone Martini, 1315 Fresco, 763 x 970 cm Palazzo Pubblico, Siena |
The theologians of the Middle Ages exercised their imaginations to create a systematic classification of the Orders of the Heavenly Host, assigning to each rank its distinctive office. To the sceptical mind, the warrant for these discriminations may seem insufficient, but as their results are manifested in the works of the old masters, basic knowledge of them is imperative to art students; without it, a large portion of the famous religious pictures of the world are utterly void of meaning.
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The Annunciation and Two Saints Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, 1333 Tempera on wood panel, 184 x 210 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
Speaking broadly, this classification was based on of the theories of St. Paul, when he speaks of “the principalities and powers in heavenly places” and of the “thrones and dominions”, on Jude’s account of the fall of the “angels which kept not their first estate” on the triumphs of the Archangel Michael, and on a few other Scripture texts. Upon this premise, the angelic host was divided into three hierarchies, and these hierarchies were further separated into nine choirs.
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Small Maestà Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1335-1340 Tempera on wood panel, 49 x 32.5 cm Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena |
The first hierarchy embraces seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, the first mention being sometimes given to the cherubim. Dionysius, the Areopagite to whom St. Paul confided all that he had seen, when transported to the seventh heaven accords the first rank to the seraphim, while the familiar hymn of St. Ambrose has accustomed us to saying, “To Thee, cherubim and seraphim continually do cry”. Dante gives preference to Dionysius as an authority, and says of him: “For he had learn’d/ Both this and much beside of these our orbs/ From an eye-witness to Heaven’s mysteries”.
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St. Bernard’s Vision of the Virgin with Saints (triptych) Matteo di Pacino Tempera on wood panel, 175 x 200 cm Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence |