Devils are introduced in many pictures, and are easily recognized by their demoniacal appearance. Frequently they are very small and numerous. They are represented as hovering above death-beds, they rejoice in the persecution of the martyrs, and wherever seen, are the very personification of all that is repulsive and loathsome.
The most important pictures in which the devil is represented as a human being are scenes in the temptation of Jesus, when he was led into the wilderness to be tempted forty days. Shakespeare says that “the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape,” but apparently artists have not recognized this. In their pictures of him there is always some characteristic which at once discloses his personality. His skin is an ugly brown, or the hoofs which he endeavors to hide are disclosed, or the repulsive expression of his face warns one of his dangerous character.
Happily such pictures are not numerous, but an ideal of the repulsiveness of the Father of Lies has been conceived by many from the famous representations of him by Raphael and Guido, in their pictures of his conquest by St. Michael. In numerous cases, however, the presence of Satan is indicated by symbols. The dragon and the serpent are the usually accepted emblems of the Evil Spirit, but there are many variations of this symbolism. A horrid dragon head with open mouth typifies hell. Frequently the serpent has an apple in his mouth and thus personates the wily tempter of Mother Eve; but in many cases the serpent has no relation to the fall of man, and is personified evil.
CHAPTER VI.
PICTURES OF ANGELS AS AUTHORIZED BY THE SCRIPTURES.
ESIDES the representations of angels in art in accordance with the imagination of individual artists, there are two important classes of angelic subjects, one of which rests upon the authority of the Scriptures, and the other upon that of the sacred legends. A comprehensive treatment of these works would require several volumes of the size of this book; but I will here give a suggestive outline of them.
The first mention of angels in the Old Testament occurs in the third chapter of Genesis, when it is related that cherubims were placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, to keep the way to the Tree of Life. Good pictures of this subject are as rare as they are beautiful. In them the exquisite garden, the radiant cherubim, and the dazzling light from the flaming sword, combine in producing a glorious effect.
In connection with the story of Abraham, angels frequently appear. The sacrifice of Isaac is always an interesting subject, symbolizing, as it does, in the submission of Isaac, that of Jesus, and in the willingness of Abraham to give his son in sacrifice, that of the Divine Father to give his well-beloved Son for the salvation of men. The appearance of the angel to prevent the consummation of the sacrifice has been painted many times, notably by Andrea del Sarto, whose poetical pictures of this scene are in the Dresden and Madrid galleries.
The picture by Rembrandt is powerful, and painfully realistic. It is in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The same scene in the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, is by Titian, and is among the famous works of this great master.
Our illustration after a picture by Il Sodoma, in the Cathedral of Pisa, is in the best style of that master, who has been called the pride of the Sienese school. His acknowledged power to render intense feeling is seen in the face of Abraham, while the angel is an example of his conception of beauty; the submissive Isaac, missing the pressure of his father’s hand from his shoulder, without changing his position, turns his eyes to discover the reason for the delay of the expected blow.