About Angels
Angelos: the Greek word for "angel" means messenger, envoy, ambassador.
Guariento di Arpo Warrior Angel, 1354
About Angels
The Greeks called it Eros. It was presiding marriages and victories and, after the 6th century b.C., it was already considered an intermediate between gods and humans, the divinity of passion and love. Either sporting a bow or bare-handed, it inspired the majority of poets and artists, who portray it as inflaming or wounding hearts with its weapon.
Sandro Boticcelli, The Annunciation (detail), 1489
About Angels
In Plotin's terms, our daemon, the angelic being, is the cover of our identity. An extension of our self. It's also been always said that the angels are man's celestial double, as we are constantly accompanied by our model, our improved portrait.
The English School The Wilton Diptych (detail), a. 1395-1399
About Angels
An angel is, primarily, a teacher, enlightening us and giving us a plus of knowledge. It is also a protector, sheltering us from all the forms of evil. It is an advisor, prompting us to do good. Last, but not least, it is a mystical guide, showing us the path to redemption. The angel's general function would therefore be that of good orientation.
Antonio del Pollaiolo The Arhanghelul Michael, a. 1475
About Angels
We do have a guiding angel, since we are, inevitably, drifters from birth. We need a guide, as we are travelers by definition, passing beings, itinerant spirits.
Fra Angelico The Crowning of the Virgin (detail), 1434/1435
About Angels
The angel provides each of our deeds with the landmark of its ideal design. Although its office includes our physical and spiritual protection, the goal of an angel is our individual redemption. To this end, it can become a harsh pedagogue, willing to bring about disaster, if need be. The angel can thus become an exterminating one.
Rogier van der Weyden, Angel (detail), a. 1440
About Angels
The angels have forever been linked to music. In a certain sense, the ultimate pursuit of the celestial hierarchies is singing. Organized in sublime choirs and orchestras, they praise incessantly the world created and, above all, its Maker. As the angels are, in fact, the Creation's resonance box, its acoustic nimbus.
Fra Angelico Music-Making Angels, a. 1433
About Angels
Their song is not only the expression of joy, of graceful comment upon the divine achievement. It is also a form of knowledge. The angels know, and confirm it through their hymns, that the cosmic perfection is of a musical nature. In other words, music is not a collateral ornament of the world, but its essential way of being, its very model. The world is good, as the biblical text says, because it is ordo, living order. And order means proportion, the right numerical ratio, harmony.
Domenico Ghirlandaio The Adoration of the Magi (detail), 1488
About Angels
The angels accompany the world's sound with a ceaseless praising commentary, of a very rich typology: Sanctus, Gloria, Kyrie, Hymnus, Jubilus, Psaltus, Alleluja.
Antonello da Messina The Dead Christ, Supported by an Angel,
a. 1476
About Angels
Set in motion, the Universe's great mechanism becomes a huge musical instrument, the source of a perpetual melody. This is the music of the spheres the Pythagoreans were talking of, musica perenis, the cosmic concert. We are therefore integrated in a vast musical "field", in a polyphonic structure, and we can expect that every false note that might pervade this whole be promptly and severely sanctioned. (1)
(1) Andrei Plesu - On Angels, The Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003
Bernardino Zenale The Saint Archangel Michael, 1490
