The Mentor Vol. 1 No. 40,
ANGELS IN ART
By JOHN C. VAN DYKE
Professor of the History of Art, Rutgers College
THE MENTOR
SERIAL No. 40
DEPARTMENT
OF FINE ARTS
MENTOR GRAVURES
| ANGEL WITH VIOLIN | Melozzo da Forlì | MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS | Bellini |
| ANGEL CHOIR | Benozzo Gozzoli | ANGEL WITH LUTE | Carpaccio |
| ANGEL OF ANNUNCIATION | Burne-Jones | SAINT MICHAEL | Perugino |
"Paint an angel!" exclaimed Courbet (koor-bay´) the realist to apupil who one day asked him how it should be done. "When did youever see an angel?" The abashed pupil had to admit that he hadnever had the good fortune to see one. "Very well, then, you had betterpaint the portrait of your grandfather, whom you see every day." Theadvice to keep his head out of the clouds while his feet were on earthmay have been needed by the pupil; but nevertheless angels have beenpainted time out of mind, and even such pronounced realists as Courbetand Manet (mah-nay´) have painted them. And they saw them, too;that is, they saw the pretty-faced models they turned into angels by addingenlarged pigeon wings to their shoulder blades. But they were notvery spiritual angels. Realism rather scorns things spiritual, and besidesreligious feeling and sentiment in art passed out several centuries beforethe coming of the modern realists.
The early men—the Fra Angelicos, the Benozzos (ben-ots-o), theFilippinos, of the fifteenth century—believed in the Biblical scenes theypainted, and sometimes stated their belief in letters of gold at the bottomof their pictures. They saw things with the eye of faith,—saw Madonnas,saints, and angels in visions, and painted them, as the evangelists wrote,by the aid of inspiration. Perhaps it was their belief, their intense feeling,that gave the fine religious sentiment to the work of these early men.Yet they did not invent or discover the angel in art. It had a more mate[2]rialand commonplace origin than inmedieval belief and religious fervor.
WINGED FIGURES INANCIENT ART
PERUGINO: BAPTISM OF CHRIST (detail)
There were winged figures inEgyptian, Chaldean, and Assyrian art,deities of the air, goddesses of thecloud and the heavens. The Hittiteand the Persian produced the wingedSphinx, and the Greek the wingedVictory that flew above the ad