Have you ever seen a bearded angel - not in real life, but
in paintings? It is a convention that both God and the adult Jesus wear beards,
while angels are androgynous in appearance, wear loose-fitting, flowing robes
and have bird wings (although there are a few exceptions to this, e.g. in
Piero’s Nativity).
Botticini‘s (1475-1476) painting of The Assumption of the
Virgin (see above – from [1]) shows Heaven as viewed above the concentric
rings of the geocentric universe. In Heaven, we recognise Jesus and Mary,
surrounded by rows of angels all having “colour coded” robes and wings, each
row representing a category of angel as recognised by Pseudo-Dionysius the
Areopagite and accepted by the Catholic Church. In ascending order these are:
Angels - pink robes: gold and black wings
Archangels - white robes: pink wings (all holding urns – my
theology is so limited that I don’t know why) (It is accepted that there are three
archangels, but there is reference to others in religious texts, but the
number shown here is unusual).
Principalities - blue robes: black and red wings
Dominions - olive robes: red wings
Virtues - blue robes: blue and red wings
Powers - white robes: pink and olive wings
Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim are shown as babies (cherubs) surrounding Mary and Jesus - although The Bible describes Seraphim as having six wings and Cherubim as having
four wings. Is there any evidence for as many Seraphim and Cherubim as
Botticini has shown?
All have their roles to play, but only Angels and Archangels
leave Heaven to visit Earth, so need their wings. At first glance, we miss the
other figures shown and perhaps confuse them with the angelic throng. Seated
between the ranks of angels are women and both bearded and clean-shaven men.
Many are clothed in monastic, or ecclesiastical, garb and have gained entry to
Heaven as Saints, Old Testament figures, and persons of similar status. Adam and
Eve are also here [1] (see below)
The image of angels as androgynous, winged figures emanated from
4th Century Christianity, probably using classical statues of winged goddesses
as models [2], the wings being important symbols of the “flight” between Heaven
and Earth. That they were bird wings, comes from our observations of birds’
power of flight and our envy of this ability. But why this accepted image? In
her fascinating essay, Therese Martin [3] explains that the earliest angels in
Christian Art were not winged, were also referred to as men (used as an interchangeable
term), and were wrapped in brilliant light. Some wore beards and “at least one
is balding” [3] and Martin explains the transition from male to androgynous,
winged angels was because “angels as men were too attractive to women – and too
susceptible to their female charms.” She concludes [3]:
Thus the image of the winged angel manages to combine a
female model with a male nominative (“angelos”) in order to portray a creature
that is spirit, not belonging to either gender. The visual form of a man with
wings satisfied the perceived need in the fourth century for an angel that was neither
man nor woman, neither man nor God. The winged image was a successful visual
metaphor that managed to capture all the ambiguities inherent in the angelic nature
and explain them in a way that has remained clearly convincing to the present
day.
So convincing, that the image has remained largely unaltered
for hundreds of years, while the Devil has changed markedly in appearance over
the same period of time [4]. Billy Graham described angels as being sexless [5]
and, while the Archangels have male names, they are still what we would now
call gender neutral in appearance. With our current sensitivity to gender
issues, the image fits as well now as it did in the 5th Century.
[1] https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francesco-botticini-the-assumption-of-the-virgin
[2] https://rwotton.blogspot.com/2016/05/angels-nike-superman-and-darth-vader.html
[3] Therese Martin (2001) The Development of Winged Angels
in Early Christian Art. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie VII, Historia del
Arte 14: 11-29.
[4] https://rwotton.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-devil-has-changed-through-time.html
[5] https://rwotton.blogspot.com/2017/04/angels-billy-graham-and-me.html
