5 Cherubim, Italian (Fourteenth century)
Such was the expressive and poetical symbol which degenerated in the later periods of Art into those little fat baby heads, with curly hair and small wings under the chin, which the more they resemble nature in colour, feature, and detail, the more absurd they become, the original meaning being wholly lost or perverted.
In painting, where a glory of angels is placed round the Divine Being or the glorified Virgin, those forming the innermost circles are or ought to be of a glowing red, the colour of fire, that is, of love; the next circle is painted blue, the colour of the firmament, or light, that is, of knowledge. Now as the word seraph is derived from a Hebrew root signifying love, and the word cherub from a Hebrew root signifying to know, should not this distinction fix the proper place and name of the first two orders? It is admitted that the spirits which love are nearer to God than those which know, since we cannot know that which we do not first love: that Love and Knowledge, ‘the two halves of a divided world,’ constitute in their union the perfection of the angelic nature; but the Seraphim, according to the derivation of their name, should love most; their whole being is fused, as it were, in a glow of adoration; therefore they should take the precedence, and their proper colour is red. The Cherubim, ‘the lords of those that know,’ come next, and are to be painted blue.
Thus it should seem that, in considering the religious pictures of the early ages of Art, we have to get rid of certain associations as to colour and form, derived from the phraseology of later poets and the representations of later painters. ‘Blue-eyed Seraphim,’ and the ‘blue depth of Seraph’s eyes,’ are not to be thought of any more than smiling Cherubim.’ The Seraphim, where distinguished by colour, are red; the Cherubim blue: the proper character, where character is attended to, is, in the Seraph, adoration; in the Cherub, contemplation. So Milton—
With thee bring
Him who soars on golden wing,
The Cherub, Contemplation.