medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Comtemplating my Christmas cards raises the perennial question, "When did
angels become female?"
[Yes, I know that angels are sexless, but male-gendered. Archangels tend to
be more butch - especially Michael - but angels seem to look rather
femme...]
The conventional answer is "Sometime during the nineteenth century".
Certainly, they look distinctly female (and brunette, funnily enough) in
Bouguereau's "The Virgin with Angels" (1900). They also look rather pert in
the Wilton Diptych - but that's an oddity all round: Richard himself is
depicted as a beardless youth, whereas he was about 30. I'm not sure about
Beato Angelico's (1387-1455) "Angel Annunciate". But when you get to
"Angelic Lutenist" by Luca Signorelli (c1445-1523), the hands may not look
especially feminine, but the clothes and hair look distinctly
high-maintenance. The face is definitely Pre-Raphaelite: the painting looks
as if it is a fresco, so there could have been repainting - possibly
photoshopping. All in all, it looks like the sort of thing that gave the
Renaissance a bad name - not to mention the type of category confusion that
did for the Sodomites...
John Briggs
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