[Illustration: Angels]
"_They boast ethereal vigour and are form'd
From seeds of heavenly birth._"--VIRGIL.
"_Down hither prone in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between world and world with steady wings:
Now on the polar wind, then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air._"--MILTON.
Angels and Archangels the mind loves to contemplate as the ministers of
God's omnipotence and beneficence, and delights in believing these
celestial beings to be endowed with a higher and purer intelligence, and
as being nearer to the divine nature. In all ages civilised man has
thought of them and represented them in art as of form like to his own,
and with attributes of volition and power suggested by wings. Scripture
itself justifies the similitude; the Almighty is sublimely represented as
"walking upon the wings of the wind." Wings have always been the symbol or
attribute of _volition_, of _mind_, or of the _spirit_ or _air_. No apter
emblem could be found for a rapid and resistless element than birds or the
wings of birds; and however incongruous such appendages may be, and
anatomically impossible, it is figuratively as the messengers of God's
will to man that we have come to view these celestial habitants.
[Illustration: Egyptian Winged Deity.]
The idea of adding wings to the human form has existed from remote
antiquity, and for the earliest suggestion of celestial beings of the
winged human type we must look to the art works of Egypt and Assyria. In
Egyptian art, Neith, the goddess of the heavens, was sometimes represented
with wings, and in the marbles of Nineveh we find human figures displaying
four wings.[3] In classic art wings are given to certain divinities and
genii. The Jews probably borrowed the idea from the Egyptians, and the
early Christians adopted--in this as in many other instances--existing
ideas in their symbolical art to express the attribute of swiftness and
power, and the sanction of the practice doubtless fixed it for acceptance
through all future epochs of Christian Art.
[Illustration: Hawk-headed and winged figure, emblem of Osiris, which,
having of all birds the most piercing eye and the most rapid flight,
serves to express the divine intelligence and activity. (Palace of Nimrod
in the Louvre.)]
In holy writ and Jewish tradition angels are usually spoken of as men, and
their wings appear to be implied rather than expressed, as when Abraham in
the plains of Mamré addresses his celestial visitors as "my lord," when
Jacob wrestles with the angel, and more particularly when the Angel at the
Sepulchre is described by St. Matthew, "His countenance was like the
lightning and his raiment white as snow," and by St. Mark as "A young man
clothed in a long white garment."
The Seraphim and Cherubim as winged beings are more perfectly described in
the Scriptures.
_The Wings Variously Coloured._--Not content with a simple departure in
form from all natural wings, the early and Middle Age artists resorted to
many expedients to invest their angels' wings with unearthly
characteristics. Colour was a fertile field for their ingenuity, and they
lavished all their brilliant hues in accentuating or separating the
several orders of feathers comprising the wings; now rivalling the
rainbow, now applying the startling contrasts of the most gorgeous
tropical butterfly; at other times sprinkling or tipping the richly
painted feathers with burnished gold, or making them appear alive with
brilliant eyes.
_Vesture._--In Early Christian Art the white vesture spoken of by St.
Matthew and St. John, almost invariably adopted, consisted of garments
resembling the classic tunica and pallium, sometimes bound with the
"golden girdle" of Revelation. During the mediæval period they were clad
in every brilliant colour. Angels do not often appear in the works of art
executed during the first six centuries of the Church; and previous to the
fifth century they were invariably represented without the nimbus--that
attribute of divinity with which they were almost always invested
throughout the whole range of Middle Age art.
_Nimbus._--The nimbi given to all the orders of the angelic hierarchy are
circular in form, with their fields either plain or covered with numerous
radiating lines or rays, sometimes with broad borders of ornament, but
never with the _tri-radiate_ form, which was specially reserved for the
persons of the trinity.
Lord Bacon ("Advancement of Learning," Book i.) says we find, as far as
credit is to be given to the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the supposed
Dionysius, the Senator of Athens, that the first place or degree is given
to the angels of love, which are termed _Seraphim_; the second to the
angels of light, which are termed _Cherubim_; and the third, and so
following places, to thrones, principalities, and the rest, which are all
angels of power and ministry, so that the angels of knowledge and
illumination are placed before the angels of office and domination.
_Fallen Angels._--We learn from Tradition that many angels, originally
holy like the rest, fell from their pristine purity, becoming so
transformed in character that all their powers are now used for the
purpose of doing evil instead of doing good. These are to be identified
with the devils so frequently mentioned in holy writ. By the artists of
the Middle Ages they are depicted in as hideous a manner as could be
conceived, more generally of the Satyr form with horns and hoofs and tail,
which last connects them with the Dragon of the Apocalypse, the
impersonation of the Supreme Spirit of evil (_see_ Dragon). In Milton's
conception Satan--the fallen Angel--assumes noble and magnificent
proportions.