9 Egyptian winged genius (Louvre)
In early Art, the angels in the bloom of adolescence are always amply draped: at first, in the classical tunic and pallium; afterwards in long linen vestments with the alba and stole, as levites or deacons; or as princes, with embroidered robes and sandals, and jewelled crowns or fillets. Such figures are common in the Byzantine mosaics and pictures. The expression, in these early representations, is usually calm and impassive. Angels partially draped in loose, fluttering, meretricious attire, poised in attitudes upon clouds, or with features animated by human passion, or limbs strained by human effort, are the innovations of more modern Art. White is, or ought to be, the prevailing colour in angelic draperies, but red and blue of various shades are more frequent: green often occurs; and in the Venetian pictures, yellow, or rather saffron-coloured, robes are not unfrequent. In the best examples of Italian Art the tints, though varied, are tender and delicate: all dark heavy colours and violent contrasts of colour are avoided. On the contrary, in the early German school, the angels have rich heavy voluminous draperies of the most intense and vivid colours, often jewelled and embroidered with gold. Flight, in such garments, seems as difficult as it would be to swim in coronation robes.
But, whatever be the treatment as to character, lineaments, or dress, wings are almost invariably the attribute of the angelic form. As emblematical appendages, these are not merely significant of the character of celestial messengers, for, from time immemorial, wings have been the Oriental and Egyptian symbol of power, as well as of swiftness; of the spiritual and aerial, in contradistinction to the human and the earthly. Thus, with the Egyptians, the winged globe signified power and eternity, that is, the Godhead; a bird, with a human head, signified the soul; and nondescript creatures, with wings, abound not only in the Egyptian paintings and hieroglyphics, but also in the Chaldaic and Babylonian remains, in the Lycian and Nineveh marbles, and on the gems and other relics of the Gnostics. I have seen on the Gnostic gems figures with four wings, two springing from the shoulders and two from the loins. This portentous figure, from the ruins of Nineveh, is similarly constructed. (10.)
In Etruscan Art all their divinities are winged; and where Venus is represented with wings, as in many of the antique gems (and by Correggio in imitation of them),[25] these brilliant wings are not, as some have supposed, emblematical of the transitoriness, but of the might, the majesty, and the essential divinity of beauty. In Scripture, the first mention of Cherubim with wings is immediately after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt (Exod. xxxi. 2). Bezaleel, the first artist whose name is recorded in the world’s history, and who appears to have been, like the greatest artists of modern times, at once architect, sculptor, and painter, probably derived his figures of Cherubim with outstretched wings, guarding the mercy-seat, from those Egyptian works of Art with which the Israelites must have been familiarised. Clement of Alexandria is so aware of the relative similitude, that he supposes the Egyptians to have borrowed from the Israelites, which is obviously the reverse of the truth. How far the Cherubim, which figure in the Biblical pictures of the present day, resemble the carved Cherubim of Bezaleel we cannot tell, but probably the idea and the leading forms are the same: for the ark, we know, was carried into Palestine; these original Cherubim were the pattern of those which adorned the temple of Solomon, and these, again, were the prototype after which the imagery of the second temple was fashioned. Although in Scripture the shape under which the celestial ministers appeared to man is nowhere described, except in the visions of the prophets (Dan. x. 5), and there with a sort of dreamy incoherent splendour, rendering it most perilous to clothe the image placed before the fancy in definite forms, still the idea of wings, as the angelic appendages, is conveyed in many places distinctly, and occasionally with a picturesque vividness which inspires and assists the artist. For instance, in Daniel, ch. vii., ‘they had wings like a fowl.’ In Ezekiel, ch.i., ‘their wings were stretched upward when they flew; when they stood, they let down their wings:’ ‘I heard the noise of their wings as the noise of great waters:’ and in Zechariah, ch. v., ‘I looked, and behold there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork.’ And Isaiah, ch. vi., in the description of the Seraphim, ‘Each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.’ By the early artists this description was followed out in a manner more conscientious and reverential than poetical.
11 Seraph
(Greek mosaic, Cathedral of Monreale)
They were content with a symbol. But mark how Milton, more daring, could paint from the same original:—
A seraph wing’d; six wings he wore to shade