CHILD-ANGELS.
To represent the perfect innocence and purity of an angel, a being whose
native atmosphere is the very presence of God, a creature not subject to
the limitations of physical laws, ever speeding on divine errands from
heaven to earth and back again to heaven, nothing could be more natural
than that art should use the face and form of innocent human childhood.
Child-angels were first seen in art during the Italian Renaissance, and
formed a conspicuous feature in the religious paintings of the period.
One of the most interesting and beautiful forms in which they appear is
as a great host, or "glory," filling the background of a composition.
From the announcement of the Saviour's birth to the Galilean shepherds,
to the vision of Saint John on the Isle of Patmos, we find various
allusions in the New Testament to the presence of angel companies in the
affairs of human life. It was therefore entirely legitimate and
appropriate to introduce a visible embodiment of the heavenly hosts into
the many sacred scenes portrayed in art, whether these were
representations of the actual incidents of Bible history, or the
imaginative embodiments of religious ideals.
The Sistine Madonna suggests itself at once as a most beautiful
illustration. The entire canvas is studded with tiny child faces,
delicately outlined,--a veritable cloud of witnesses, dissolving into
the golden glory with which they are surrounded. What a contrast is the
exquisite spirituality of this conception to Perugino's angel glories,
where baby faces, each with six many-hued wings are ranged at regular
intervals throughout the composition!
A less notable example of Raphael's unique treatment of the angel host
is in his Vision of Ezekiel, a small painting of earlier date than the
Sistine Madonna. Here the idea is manifestly drawn from the prophet's
description of his vision of the four living creatures in a great amber
wheel, which was "full of eyes."
Turning from Raphael's clouds of dimly suggested cherub faces to those
representations of the angel throngs in which the child forms are more
distinctly delineated, we find that the great masters have made use of
the myriad figures to express a corresponding variety in mood and
character. Thus, when the emotions of the principal personage in a
composition are too complex to be adequately expressed on a single
countenance, the angel faces surrounding may each, in turn, convey some
one of the many aspects of thought or feeling which go to make up the
entire conception.
The Crucifixion[16] is a striking instance of the mingling, of
contrasted emotions,--bodily suffering and spiritual victory, worldly
defeat and heavenly triumph,--all of which cannot be depicted on the
face of the Christ, but which a throng of attendant cherubs may fully
interpret. The same principle is illustrated in the many scenes of which
the Madonna is the central figure, as the Immaculate Conception, the
Assumption, and the Coronation.
[Illustration: FRAGMENT FROM THE ASSUMPTION.--TITIAN.]
Of such paintings, Titian's Assumption is the most splendid example.
The ascending, Virgin is surrounded by a wreath of child-angels, of
surpassing grace and beauty. It is of these that Mrs. Jameson has
written, in her incomparable way, that they are "mind and music and
love, kneaded, as it were, into form and color." From a compositional
point of view they serve an important purpose in directing the attention
of the spectator to the principal figure of the picture. All the
gracefully intertwined limbs of the angelic host--outstretched arms and
floating figures,--form the radii of a great semicircle centering in the
beautiful Madonna.
If Titian's child-angels stand for the highest attainment in the
idealization of child beauty, those of Rubens, on the other hand, are
the most human and lovable ever conceived in art. Their lovely baby
forms cluster in countless numbers about the glorified Virgin, joyously
bearing palm and wreath in token of her triumph.
The name of Murillo also occupies the first rank in the delineation of
companies of child-angels. Called in turn the Titian and the Rubens of
Spain, he is like his Venetian and Flemish prototypes in his intense
sympathy for childhood. His angels have not that transcendent
superiority to mortals which distinguishes Titian's, nor are they the
dimpled bits of pink-and-white babyhood characteristic of Rubens. They
belong somewhere between the two extremes, and are remarkable for their
innocence and purity of expression. As the Immaculate Conception was
Murillo's favorite subject, it is here that we see his child-angels at
their best. He has also introduced them into the Holy Family of Seville,
as well as into that most wonderful painting of the Christ-child
Appearing to Saint Anthony of Padua.
A beautiful method of introducing child-angels into religious pictures,
differing widely from the treatment of angel hosts, is to represent
one[17] or two, sometimes three, in attendance upon the Madonna and
Babe, or the Christ. This is especially appropriate where the subject is
treated devotionally, and the central figure is elevated on a throne or
pedestal, with the angels at the foot.
Among the Florentine artists, the two friends Raphael and Bartolommeo,
as well as their contemporary, Andrea del Sarto, furnish many examples
of these angel attendants. With Andrea del Sarto, as was characteristic,
they are bewitching winged boys; while with Bartolommeo and Raphael they
partake of a more delicate spirituality, which marks them as truly
celestial.
The Madonna of the Harpies, which is considered the masterpiece of
Andrea del Sarto, contains two charming cherubs, which may be taken as
excellent types of the artist's rendering of these subjects. The Two
Angels, from his great painting of the Four Saints, are somewhat above
his average plane. These lovely and graceful figures originally stood in
the centre of a large composition, but were at a later date removed from
the canvas to make a separate picture. Their real significance is to
show forth the beauty of a saintly life. Each carries a scroll, and one
points upward.
In the work of Bartolommeo the finest cherubs are those of his Throne
Madonna, the Madonna Enthroned, and the Risen Christ. All three show the
same masterly hand, and express a similar conception of the office
filled by the angels. In every case one is looking up with a rapt
expression of joy, while the other is more contemplative, drooping the
head as if in reflection. The contrast suggests the distinction of
early theology between the seraphim and cherubim, the former being,
according to etymological significance, the spirits who love and adore,
and the latter, those who know and worship. This distinction was
scrupulously adhered to in early art by representing the seraphim as
red, and the cherubim as blue. Although later artists no longer observed
any discrimination between two classes of celestial beings, it may be
that the difference between Bartolommeo's two angels is due to the
influence of this idea. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the
opposition between them in face and attitude is exactly appropriate to
symbolize one as love and the other as reflection.
This is very marked in Raphael's work, as may be seen in his Madonna del
Baldacchino, a painting whose style of composition is strikingly like
that of Bartolommeo. Of the two singing angels at the foot of the
Madonna's throne, one studies eagerly the meaning of his music, while
the other sings with the happy unconsciousness of a bird. Comparing with
this Raphael's grandest achievement, the Sistine Madonna, we find the
same _motif_ carried to its highest realization. The two beautiful
cherubs who lean upon the parapet at the bottom of the picture are
perfect impersonations of the serene content and the thoughtful
deliberation with which varying types of Christian believers have
received the great fact of the Incarnation.
The Venetian painters delighted to put musical instruments into the
hands of their child-angels, representing them as choristers, hymning
the praises of the infant Saviour. Of these, many notable examples were
produced in the _botteghe_ of the two rival artist families, the Bellini
and the Vivarini. Jacopo Bellini and his two sons, Gentile and
Giovanni, were the real founders of the Venetian school, and the work of
Giovanni became an ideal standard, which his contemporaries essayed to
follow. Luigi Vivarini was so successful as his imitator that his
paintings are often incorrectly assigned to the greater artist.
[Illustration: PIPING ANGEL.--BELLINI.]
The Frari Madonna, however, is an undoubted Bellini, and here the
Venetian conception of the child-angel is seen in its loveliest aspects.
Two eager little choristers stand on the lower steps of the Madonna's
throne, "exquisite courtiers of the Infant King," as Mrs. Oliphant
gracefully calls them. One, myrtle-crowned, is blowing on a pipe, while
the other bends gravely over a large lute.
The Madonna of the Church of the Redentore[18] shows another pair of
angel musicians, sitting on a low wall in the foreground, one at the
head and the other at the feet of the sleeping Babe. Both are playing
on lutes, and the serious, absorbed air with which they fulfil their
task is delightful to see. With lifted face and faraway eyes, they seem
to be listening to a heavenly chorus, of which their own melody is an
echo.
Any mention of the Venetian type of angels would be incomplete without
adding the names of Palma Vecchio and Carpaccio to the list of those who
most delicately interpreted the subject. Examples of their work are
scattered over Northern Italy, but none perhaps are more representative
than Carpaccio's Presentation, in the Academy at Venice, and Palma's
altar-piece at Zerman.
[Illustration: ANGEL FROM PAINTING IN CHURCH OF REDENTORE.--VIVARINI.]
The child-angel as a playmate and companion of the Christ-child is a
conception which has not infrequently been represented in art with great
appropriateness. Both Van Dyck and Lucas Cranach have given us the
Repose in Egypt, enlivened by the presence of a company of frolicsome
cherubs sporting about the Divine Babe. Rubens painted a lovely group of
the Infant Jesus and Saint John, seated on the ground, playing with
their celestial little visitors. A Holy Family, by Ippolito Andreasi,
represents angel children gathering and bringing grapes to the Saviour.
With a small circle of Florentine artists, led by Botticelli, and
including Filippo Lippi and Filippino Lippi, a unique class of
child-angels is in great favor. These are children of a larger growth
and maturer appearance than the infantine cherubs of contemporary
artists, and might properly be called angel-youths. In the best examples
their expression is an admirable mingling of strength and purity. As
attendants to the Christ-child, they serve in various capacities with
loving and reverent grace.
In Botticelli's famous "round Madonna" of the Uffizi, one holds the ink
vessel into which the Virgin dips her pen as she writes the Magnificat,
two others hold a starry crown over her head, and two more complete the
group, as companions of the Saviour. In the Holy Family, by the same
artist, only two angels are introduced, one of whom leans over a
balustrade, with a beautiful lily-stalk in his hand, in token of the
Virgin's purity.
Filippo Lippi's charming rendering of angel-youths is best seen in the
picture which represents the Christ-child borne by two attendant cherubs
in exemplification of the psalmist's words, "They shall bear thee up in
their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." The Madonna
stands before the Divine Babe, with hands clasped in adoration, a lovely
impersonation of the Madre Pia.
[Illustration: ANGEL FROM VISION OF MADONNA APPEARING TO SAINT
BERNARD.--FILIPPINO LIPPI.]
The Madre Pia is also the subject of one of Filippino Lippi's most
exquisite angel pictures. The Infant Saviour lies on the ground, in a
garden, while his mother kneels to adore him. Angel-youths surround him,
kneeling, and one stands showering rose-petals down upon him.
The masterpiece of Filippino Lippi is the Vision of Saint Bernard, in
the Badia at Florence, and here again angel-youths are introduced with
charming effect. Two are in the rear, with hands clasped in adoration;
two are beside the Virgin, bearing the weight of her mantle, and raising
their earnest young faces with sweet reverence. One of these faces is
presented in profile, and has a delicately cut, pure outline, of rare
gentleness and beauty.
The artist's ideal is wonderfully helpful to the imagination, and the
thought is full of comfort, that it is loving and tender presences like
these which are "in charge over us, to keep us in all our ways."
VI.
THE CHRIST-CHILD.
And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom:
and the grace of God was upon him.
LUKE ii. 40.