The three beautiful figures by Raphael, however, are not like any men whom we have seen; they impress one as beings of another and a far higher sphere than ours. Murillo, on the contrary, shows us three ordinary travellers, and but for the title of the picture, we should not suspect that these men were celestial visitors. A large picture of this subject by Rembrandt is one of the treasures of the Hermitage.
Jacob’s dream, with the ascending and descending angels, is an exquisite motive for illustration, and has been variously pictured. A single angel sometimes watches the sleeper, as if to inspire his dream and bring him a blessing; again, there are many angels, and again, but a small number, who move here and there, up and down, imparting a remarkable effect of airy, graceful motion. The ladder, too, is widely varied, being represented by one or several flights of steps, ascending to the clouds.
In the sixth arcade of the Vatican loggie is Raphael’s third and best representation of this dream. Here Jacob’s face is turned towards the ladder, on which are six angels; Jehovah appears above with outstretched arms, and surrounded by a glory. It is not one of the best of Raphael’s works, and, indeed, all representations of Jacob’s dream that I have seen, are, to my mind, insufficient when compared with that of Rembrandt, in the Dulwich gallery. This is a poem as essentially as it is a picture. A stream of dazzling light forms the ladder, up and down which float mystic, radiant angels. The whole impression is so like a dream, so intangible, and yet so apparent, that one wonders how Rembrandt, who so often dwelt upon the all too solid elements of his motives, here caught the innermost spirit of this most spiritual subject.
“The Comforting of Elijah” is a subject with rare possibilities, but has been seldom represented.
Rubens painted a picture of this scene as symbolical of the Lord’s Supper, the angel presenting to Elijah the bread and a chalice. Following a custom of some landscape painters who introduced a subject—mythological, historical, or Scriptural—into their pictures, Paul Potter represented the “Comforting of Elijah” in the foreground of one of his pictures. It also occurs in some ancient illuminated Bibles.
William Blake’s illustration of the text in Job, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” is famous for the unusual character of the angels. Like many pictures by this poet, who was esteemed as half mad, it has an element of other worldliness which is rarely seen in works of his era. Of this especial picture Mrs. Jameson wrote: “His adoring angels float rather than fly, and, with their half liquid draperies, seem about to dissolve into light and love; and his rejoicing angels—behold them—sending up their voices with the morning stars, that, singing, in their glory, move.”
The Vision of Ezekiel, in the Pitti Gallery, in Florence, is, so far as I know, a unique representation of this subject. Raphael painted it for Count Ercolani in Bologna. It is mentioned as early as 1589, in the Inventory of the Tribune, and has been engraved and copied many times.
Jehovah is represented seated in a glory of cherubim’s heads, which are almost unnoticeable by reason of the exceeding brightness illustrative of the text, “And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward. I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.” In accordance with this text also, Jehovah is nude in the upper portion of the figure, the lower portion being draped in purple. Near the Jehovah are the four animals symbolic of the evangelists, the cherub, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, not earthly creations, but mysterious and spiritual as they float along bearing the Messiah, while two small angels are near with outstretched arms.
The sky effects of this wonderful picture are fine; the gray clouds are rolling away, as if for the purpose of disclosing the vision. This picture has been criticised on account of the nude figure of Jehovah; it has been said to be a more proper representation of Jupiter than of the Almighty, but Raphael is justified by the text itself.
Perhaps no representation exists which more acceptably renders the symbolic nature of the Four Beasts than does this. The exact imitation of nature, which appeared later in works of Art, is entirely opposed to the true meaning of these emblems, which was sacred and mystical. The cherub typifies St. Matthew, because his Gospel sets forth the human nature of Christ more forcibly than the divine. The lion was appropriate to St. Mark, because he first speaks of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” typical of the lion. The ox belongs to St. Luke, since he dwells on the priesthood of Christ, the ox symbolizing sacrifice; the eagle to St. John, as the emblem of his inspiration, by which he wrote so sublimely of the divinity of Jesus.