I found two paintings of angels I had never seen before when I searched for angels on WikiCommons. This one is by Orazio Gentileschi, an Italian Baroque painter who lived from 1563 - 1639. The title is "Saint Cecilia with an Angel." I love the idea of a personal angel sitting right beside me while I create, or wash dishes, or write a letter, or whatever.
This angel looks so much as if she cares about Saint Cecilia. She holds the sheet of music closer for her to see, but without, so it seems, once taking her gaze off of Cecilia's face. And her wings are weighty, indeed, as silvery as those silver pipes, and as heavy-duty. The artist makes you feel that her wings really could lift her up in flight.
Here we have a multitude of angels hovering over mother and child. This painting is "Song of the Angels" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905). (He did the "Young Gypsies" painting that I loved so much in this post here.)
The mother and child in the painting above may well be the Madonna and Christ Child, but there are no halos to say for sure. By the time Bouguereau was painting, the use of halos in art had diminished. And, anyway, I love the idea that we all have halos of light around us.
And I also love the idea that each one of us, at any given time, might find ourselves surrounded by a multitude of angels. I went to a reunion this past weekend of ladies I had worked with years ago at The University of Texas, and being with them was like being surrounded by a multitude of caring angels. There must have been a great invisible intermingling of aureolas and wings in that cozy home with its red-painted cupboards and comfy sofas as five of us gathered round to visit.
When three or more are gathered together, just think of the light and feathers that are flying every which way! And when only one is gathered together, all alone, with bowed head, perhaps, that one is never really alone. Truly, I have sometimes found a feather on the floor when I have been quite utterly alone.
But this 1875 painting might be even closer to the essence of angel upon earth: the loving mother figure who watches over us while we sleep.
The English translation of the title is "Young mother contemplating her sleeping child in candlelight". The painter is Albert Anker (1831–1910). Here all of the light is candlelight, but the glow is very much from the heart of this mother.
I don't think we ever reach a point where we do not long for the safety of falling asleep in the arms of such loving watchfulness.
Perhaps an angel is someone who makes us feel safe in spite of whatever we might be facing, or the stranger who smiles at us or simply holds a door open for us.
I think I'll go looking for angels today. I could just follow the trail of feathers that angels must surely leave behind. And there must be feathers everywhere!
.
