medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
My Serenissima list discussed this at length last year in terms of Venetian
art & musician-angels. It is very clear is that you have to be quite
specific about date and area, & know quite a lot about liturgical dress.
It seems that this discussion has limited itself to modern political
preferences, but to reduce angels to M/F is to show a great want of
imagination, & it seems to me that early Renaissance angels often indicate
an attempt to go beyond gender. Byzantine angels are assumed to be
masculine, if anything. The angel of the 2 annunciations in Luke 1 is
identified as Gabriel & this is a masculine name. I do not think one can
reasonably a 1st century writer would imagine that God would send a female
messenger.
DW
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Bugslag" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Female Angels?
> 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...]
>
> Dear John,
> The pictorial roots for the depiction of angels (quite separate from any
theological
> conceptions) lie in the Roman world. Roman winged victory figures were
most
> usually feminine, and during the 4th century, after the Edict of Milan in
313, it is
> often a moot point as to whether some figures, on Christian sarcophagi for
example,
> were intended to represent Victories or angels. There are also some
incredible
> images of, probably, souls in the 3rd-century synagogue frescoes at Dura
Europos
> which are represented as winged female figures in long flowing gowns,
remarkably
> anticipating the usual way that angels were depicted later in the
Christian tradition.
> Merry Christmas!
> Jim Bugslag
>
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