AngelicArtistry's GoToHeaven Jophiel's Game Question 50
Angels In Art
The earliest depictions of angel-like beings are traced by art historians to the times of the
________________________________ culture of the fertile crescent, dating to around the third millennium.
They created stone carvings of winged beings, the precursors of the angels, to symbolize their deities and their servants.
Other gods and mythological beings with wings and duties similar to the angels were found among Assyrians in their genie, dating to the ninth century B.C.
In succession to the _________________ and the Assyrians were the Babylonians, who advanced the notions of spirit guardians, protecting palaces and temples.
These guardians were the keribu, who formed the basis of the later angels called the cherubim.
In the eras when belief in angels was firmly established, it is interesting to note that artistic representation of the members of the heavenly host was severely curtailed by the strict prohibitions found in Orthodox Judaism and also Islam against the depiction of religious figures, including the Lord, the prophet Muhammad, and angels.
Fortunately Persian art had no such limitation, and consequently some of the finest illustrations of winged angels are found in Persian miniatures and Moghul art.
Far and away, however, the depiction of angels is most fully and extensively expressed in Christian and Western art.
Angels appeared in Christian art at an early time, remaining one of the most popular motifs for painters, sculptors, and illustrators and found in icons, illuminated manuscripts, paintings, reliefs, and sculptures.
Expressing the faith of the time, giving edification and spiritual encouragement to the viewer, and bringing to life some event in Scripture, the angel was often used by the foremost artists in history.
There are thus angels by Giotto, Raphael (including the Liberation of St. Peter in the Vatican), Roger van der Weyden, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Angelico, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Brunelleschi, Melozzo da Forli, Jan and Hubert van Eyck, Hans Memling, Albrecht Durer, Pieter Brueghel, Gustave Dore, and William Blake; there are also the countless lesser or even unknown artisans whose work, while not famous or renowned, nevertheless contributed to the place of angels in the hearts and minds of humanity throughout the ages.
Today these masterworks are joined by new interpretations by contemporary artists, many part of the renaissance in anagelology of the past years, others part of the ongoing New Age movement that has also fostered the study and appreciation of the angelic.
To what culture have the earliest depictions of angel-like beings been traced?