ANGEL IDEALS OF THE OLD MASTERS
VEROCCHIO (School of) ARCHANGEL RAPHAEL (detail)
Of course the ideal of angelic beauty varied with each painter. Each chose for a model the fairest type he could find, and each differed from his fellow. Perhaps the most popular types of angels in the early Renaissance were painted by Melozzo da Forlì. A notable group of them was painted in a cupola of the Church of the Apostles in Rome. They were angels of the Ascension, and surrounded the rising figure of Christ. The fresco afterward became so damaged that it was taken down, and some of the angels were transferred to the Sacristy of St. Peter's, where they are now to be seen. Our reproduction shows a detail of one of them,—one with a fair face, abundant hair, a halo about the head made up of golden cubes of mosaic, and large expanded wings. The figure is seen slightly foreshortened, and this, with the spread wings that seem really large enough to support an angel, gives the impression of flight, or at least a hovering movement. The wings are upraised, and seem to frame the beautiful head and its halo. This upward swing of the wings is counterbalanced by the downward sweep of the drapery from the waist line. Between the upward and the downward curves is a swirling cross line, made up by the shoulder, the arm, and the violin bow. All this is shrewdly worked out, and gives force and movement to the figure. The whole composition has nobility and loftiness about it, and is not a mere sweet-faced affair of the Carlo Dolci (dol´-chee) kind.
VERONESE: ANNUNCIATION (detail)
BOTTICELLI: MADONNA, CHILD, AND ANGELS