Angels as the Manus Dei: Evidence in Art and Angelology (original) (raw)
Related papers
St Roch and the Angel in Renaissance Art (2020)
Studies in Iconography 41 (2020), pp. 165-211, 2020
This article investigates the origins, significance and varied inflections of the figure of an angel in Renaissance representations of St Roch. Although presumed to derive from the saint’s biography—specifically, to depict his cure from bubonic plague by an angel—the exact relationship between text and image is more complex than one of straightforward narrative illustration. Textual priority cannot be assumed, as representations of the new saint preceded by nearly two decades the earliest extant biographies. Moreover, these early vite make no mention of angelic involvement in Roch’s healing. Rocketing to success as efficacious plague protector in the late-fifteenth century, Roch has been recently unmasked as a pious fiction. By interrogating the multiple reworkings of the angel—shown blessing, announcing or actively curing with the tools of contemporary medicine—the essay elucidates the processes of saint formation and the key role of visual imagery in shaping worshippers’ conception of the saint and the operation of his protective powers. The essay argues for the origins of the theme in Venetian art, and identifies Andrea da Murano's St Vincent Ferrer altarpiece (c. 1477-79; Accademia, Venice) as perhaps the earliest extant version. Other works discussed include Bartolomeo Vivarini's triptych for S. Eufemia (1480), a watercolour probably by notary, lawyer and print collector Jacopo Rubieri, and altarpieces by Titian and Pordenone. Analysis of the extant lives of the saint suggests that the origins of the theme of Roch and the angel are likely visual rather than textual. Subsequent sections investigate modifications to the theme in Northern Renaissance art, where identification of the angel as Raphael, the “angelic doctor,” encouraged artists to represent him not simply blessing or pointing to the bubo, but actively ministering to the diseased saint, applying a healing salve or even taking up the surgical instruments of his earthly counterparts to lance Roch’s bubo. The final section of the essay highlights the continuing mutability of depictions of saint and angel in sixteenth century Italian art, where the grounded heavenly attendant is replaced by the angel aloft. Works analyzed include paintings by Lombard artists such as Vicenzo Civerchio and Titian's print of c. 1517 for the Scuola di San Rocco.
The cult and Representation of the Archangel Raphael in Sixteenth-Century Venice
St Andrews University Journal of Art History and Museum Studies, 2011
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways Psalm 91:11 Today the concept of the guardian angel tends to be thought of as an 'old' idea, but there is little indication that the belief achieved any widespread liturgical or artistic attention before around 1600. However, the largely forgotten cult of the Archangel Raphael, to which the concept of the guardian angel is closely linked, predates it by some length. This article considers how popular devotion to one specific angel developed into a more general belief in angelic intervention, through an examination of the iconography associated with the Archangel Raphael in sixteenth-century Venice. The understanding and representation of the role of guardian angels is examined, and I show how the imagery developed from the iconography of Raphael and his relationship with his attribute Tobias. In addition, I examine how the effect of Protestant criticism of the cult of saints -of angels in particular -and the efficacy of prayer affected the cult of Raphael and the saint's representation in Venice.
Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Angels: A Comparison
Angels in Medieval Philosophical Inquiry. Their Function and Significance, 2008
I shall attempt to draw a comparison between medieval, Renaissance and Reformation theories of angels. Any comparison needs a tertium comparationis which in this particular case – due to the heterogeneity of the three discourses – is not easy to determine. Thus, when I choose to concentrate on the issue of angelic cognition of material particulars, this is not to suggest that the philosophers and theologians of the three periods concerned have all actually discussed it as such. It is rather the why and how they did or did not discuss this issue that will provide the basis for comparing the different views about the angels.
This article investigates how mid-thirteenth-century theologians grappled with questions of angelic embodiment and corporeal life-functioning. Regent masters such as Alexander of Hales, Richard Fishacre, Richard Rufus of Cornwall, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure variously employed scriptural and patristic sources in conjunction with Aristotelian philosophy to develop a basic metaphysics of angels according to which these inherently incorporeal spiritual creatures assume bodies not on account of any necessity on their part, but rather simply so that we humans might understand their divinely-ordained ministries. Because the relationship between angels and their bodies is strictly occasional and extrinsic, aiming at human instruction, embodied life-functions that are natural to humans are not natural to angels. Rather, angels merely act in anthropomorphic ways in order to fittingly reveal the divine will to human comprehension.
Humanist prejudice famously made medieval angelology the paradigm of ludicrous speculation with its caricature of “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” The truth is quite the opposite: many of medieval philosophy’s most original and ingenious contributions actually came to light in discussions of angelology. In fact, angelology provided an ideal context for discussing issues such as the structure of the universe, the metaphysical texture of creatures (e.g. esse-essentia composition and the principle of individuation), and theories of time, knowledge, freedom, and linguistics—issues which, for the most part, are still highly relevant for contemporary philosophy. Because this specifically philosophical interest in angels developed mainly during the course of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, this volume centers on the period from Bonaventure to Ockham. It also, however, discusses some original positions by earlier thinkers such as Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury. Its nine thorough studies bring to light some neglected but highly fascinating aspects of medieval philosophy, thus filling an important gap in the literature. Contributors include: Richard Cross, Gregory T. Doolan, H.J.M.J. Goris, Tobias Hoffmann, Peter King, Timothy B. Noone, Giorgio Pini, Bernd Roling, and John F. Wippel.