Sarah Arata
Hum 300
Digital Gallery Individual Paper
Fallen Angels
In many religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is believed that there are intermediary beings between God and mankind that are called angels. They are bodiless entities that perform certain tasks for God and are commonly thought of as the couriers of God. The word angel is thought to be derived from the Greek word “angelos” which means messenger. In those theologies, an angel is one who acts as a herald, attendant or agent of God. Throughout the Bible, it is generally seen that the will of God is carried out or aided by angels. These celestial beings were created as the essence of love and joy. They enjoy an intimate relationship with God, living with Him, loving, reflecting, and praising Him in heaven. Angels are spirits without bodies, who posses higher intelligence, massive strength, and exceeding holiness. Created with one purpose, angels are to love and serve God without condition. In doing so, angels make sure love is given wherever needed. When compared to humans and free will, angels continually pour out love while humans choose to give their love to whom they wish and whenever they want.
Angels are usually portrayed as having a human form, being dressed in long, white clothes, surrounded by a bright light and with long, swanlike wings. They are also depicted wearing halos, which radiate from the angels’ heads in a glorious circlet of light, symbolizing divinity. However, throughout history, angels have taken on a variety of different forms. Ezekiel 1:5-21 describes angels as taking on not only the appearance of men, but a mystical form as well: “Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward; each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body.” There are cases, however, where angels appeared as ordinary men and were mistaken for such. Lot came upon two angels of the Lord who were sent to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and to spare the lives of Lot and his family. Genesis 19:15 reads, “And when morning dawned the angels urged Lot saying, 'Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city'. But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon (Lot).” Once Lot was safely outside the city, both Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
While angels were originally created sacred and without sin, there was a revolt by Lucifer, who rebelled and sought to raise himself above God. Revelation 12:4 states “His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky,” showing in his rebellion that Satan took one-third of the angels with him. John wrote, “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war” (Rev. 12:7). In other words, there are good angels and there are evil angels fighting against each other. These angels who sinned did so in full knowledge of their consequences and actions. They knew exactly what they were doing in choosing to follow Lucifer. Fallen angels who chose to rebel were cast out of heaven to the earth. Those angels who remained holy were faced with the same ethical choice but chose not to follow Satan. They have never known the experience of sin.
As leader of the fallen angels, Satan hates God and His chosen people. He is constantly working to hinder those who believe and cause them to stumble and fall. I Peter 5:8 warns God’s people stating, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Satan, an angelic being, is supernaturally powerful and brilliant, and uses those powers against humanity. Along with his strength and intelligence, Satan encompasses the ability of deception. John describes him in John 12:9 as “who deceives the whole world”. By utilizing his demon-like angels, Satan is able to be even more cunning by sending them out as immoral agents to do his work. Both Lucifer and his angels disguise themselves as angels of light to deceive God’s people. Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
Fallen angels are given a variety of titles throughout the Bible including demons, evil messengers and unclean spirits. Their desire for power is matched with an evil mentality, emotion and determination. Presently these spirits are waiting for God’s final judgment and their ultimate destination of eternal hell. Because the angels are aware of their sinful nature, there is no atonement for them. 2 Peter 2:4 states “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment”. According to the Catholic Church, angels were created with a celestial knowledge so they don’t need faith. Their belief is that those angels who chose to rebel against Christ and follow Satan carried out what constitutes an unforgivable sin. Dante Alighieri talks about the sin of the wrathful fallen angel in his poem, The Inferno. Instead of being the beautiful creature he was before his fall, Satan is a hideous beast who chews on betrayers such as Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. His punishment is similar to the other residents of hell in that his ugly exterior represents his sin. Furthermore, because he sought to subdue God and become the ultimate ruler, he is confined to the deepest circle of Hell with no way out. Dante also depicts fallen angels as “rained down from heaven” to defend the city of Dis. Because they were cast out of heaven, the unclean spirits laid the foundation for evil in the world. Once stunning, these fallen angels are like all things in the infernal, transformed into monstrous demons.
While the general views of fallen angels are wicked and grotesque, many artists portray these spirits as encompassing heavenly features at their point of rebelling against God. Various religions employ the use of art to remind believers of their values. Not always are the images of holy beings and heavenly stories, but often of the sins in the world to serve as a warning against falling into those transgressions. The fall of the rebellious angels is the greatest single theme of the Counter-Reformations. The theme allowed a church in conflict to present its propaganda in the form of its struggle against all forms of heresy. The theme of the struggling angel also symbolized the triumph of light over the power of darkness. This idea allows painters to use chiaroscuro, the strong contrast of dark and light, with meaning, in which heaven and hell are in a confined amount of space filled with tension.
While there are an abundance of angel images throughout history, there is only a small amount of art dealing with fallen angels. El Ángel Caído in Madrid, Spain is one of few statues dedicated to a fallen angel. Created in Rome, 1877 by Ricardo Bellver, it was cast in bronze in Paris for the Exposition Universelle of 1878. Standing ten feet high, the monument was moved to Retiro Park where architect Francisco Jareño created a pedestal of granite, stone and bronze. The angel is depicted in motion with wings outstretched and twisted, resting on some rocks, while a snake wraps itself around the angel’s body. This work encompasses the Hellenistic style mixed with Baroque and romanticism for the use of diagonal lines and the dramatic intensity. Luca Giordano creates a scene of tension with a knight-like angel sweeping victory over the power of darkness in his painting The Fall of the Rebel Angels. The archangel, Michael, balances in what looks like a ballet movement on the chest of Lucifer, entangled in a group of his fallen angels. Lucifer’s angular, bat-like wings differ greatly from the feather-like, glorious wings of Michael’s. At a first glance, the viewer expects to see a dramatic struggle between the opposing forces. However, the powerful archangel Michael is not attacking the figures from hell with his sword, but rather holding it as a sign, as thought his appearance were enough to cast Lucifer and his angels into eternal damnation. Le génie du mal, created in 1848, is a white marble sculpture created by Guillame Geefs. Located in an elaborate pulpit, known as the “seat of truth” within St. Paul’s Cathedral Liège, Geefs depicts the ultimate fallen angel, Lucifer. Standing around five and a half feet tall, the statue portrays a beautiful man in his physical prime, seated, chained and nearly nude but covered with a draped cloth over his thighs. The angel’s full length bat-like wings surround him combining bat and human anatomy to create an illusion of realism. The overall mood seen across his face is fierce yet somber as a tear is upon his cheek. The artist included several details to enhance the theme of punishment including the forbidden fruit (an apple with bite marks) at the angel’s feet, the broken-off tip of the scepter and stripped-off crown held at his right hip, along with a pair of horns to further dehumanize the figure.
Due to pride, fallen angels did not return God’s love; however, God did not destroy them. Satan keeps the fallen spirits in bondage to his carry out his will of corrupting humans to separate them from God and eventually take them to eternal hell. By influencing the mind, these fallen angels are able to trick humans into rejecting Christ and living in sin. They attempt to draw people away from the truth, but fail when it comes to the children of God because of the Holy Spirit’s protection over them. 1 John 4:4 states “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” Through art and stories from the Bible, we are able to see the evil created within these spirits that caused many to fall. It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are saved in Him, as the Holy Spirit brings the elect to repentance and saving faith, and we will not be swayed by these fallen angels.
El Ángel Caído (Ricardo Bellver)
The Fall of the Rebel Angels (Luca Giordano)
Le génie du mal (Guillame Geefs)
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. "The Inferno of Dante." New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994.
"Bible Gateway". Zondervan Corporation L.L.C. 10 Sept 2009 .
Geographic, National. Madrid Walking Tour: Plaza Colón to Retiro Park. 2010. 8 April 2010 .
God, All About. Fallen Angels. 2002. 8 April 2010 .
Huie, Bryan. Fallen Angels and Demons. 5 July 1997. 8 April 2010 .
Iconography. 2009-10. 8 April 2010 .
Slick, Matt. What are Fallen Angels? 1995-2010. 8 April 2010 .
Taschen. "Masterpieces of Wetern Art." Williams, Karen, Hugh Warden and Isabel Flett. New York: Taschen, 2002. 238.
uLike. Le Génie du mal . 2010. 8 April 2010 .
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Fully rev. ed. Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. Print
