Artists have always painted angels. It is hard to know how much these earliest images dictate our expectations of what an angel might look like. Do angels really have halos and wings or do they choose to show themselves in that way because it is what we expect and what we feel comfortable with?
In traditional art, those depicted most often are Gabriel, Michael, Metatron, Raphael and Uriel. Michael makes a worthy subject for a portrait and is usually shown with his ‘flaming sword’, ready for battle. Michael is an obvious inspiration for religious art, being a protector of humankind.
Gabriel is the archangel most likely to be shown as a female angel. Modern artwork regularly shows angels as beautiful human women with wings, presenting a change in the perceived energy of angels from masculine to feminine.
Azrael is shown as the angel of death. He was greatly feared as the angel who stole away human souls. Now we recognize this role as one of comfort and friendship – an angel who helps souls over to the other-side, rather than snatching them away. Ancient artwork will reflect this traditional vision of a frightening figure of loss.
Although similar traits (like Michael being depicted with a sword) do flow through the different painters’ ideas of what particular angels might look like, vast differences are also shown. Fra Angelico (c. 1387–1455) painted the Angel Gabriel as part of a fresco called The Annunciation. Gabriel is dressed in a gown of reddish-bronze with his feet hidden (almost as if he could be floating). His hair is blonde and curly with a classical ‘halo’ of light around his head. He has a pair of large golden wings.
Francois Boucher (1703-70) painted Angels and Doves as an ‘oil on canvas’. Boucher (the celebrated Rococo artist) draped his chubby-baby angels (or cherubs) in soft pink cloth and gave them the tiniest of bird-type wings.
In another, completely different style, William Blake (1757–1827) in his Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels, a pair of creamy-white angels pray over the body of Christ. Their long white gowns drape over a human-like body. Each angel has high-pointing wings and the top half of the angels is surrounded by a soft golden glow.
People don’t have the same fear of embarrassment talking about angels that they once had. Even people in the public eye are happy to talk about their own angels. Following an event to help publicize a project called ‘A Gathering of Angels’ (to support work which promotes the protection of children suffering from violence), author Pat Montandon asked many well-known people to draw and write about their own angels.
The project produced a book entitled Celebrities and their Angels, and contributors included ex-USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, chat-show hosts Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey and film stars including Burt Reynolds and Whoopi Goldberg. There are even entries by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama! Believing in angels, and admitting to the fact, is now an OK thing to do!
Angels are portrayed in our modern television programmes and in films in much the way they were painted in Renaissance times. Modern interpretations of angels vary greatly. Here are some favourite classics.
The angel ‘Jonathan’ was played by actor and director Michael Landon (star of the children’s favourite Little House on the Prairie) in the hit TV series Highway to Heaven. Jonathan was the angel sent down by God, ‘The Boss’, to partner with ex-Californian policeman Mark Gordon. Their role was to help people see a better way of living and to act in the role of guardians, and it made for an entertaining and highly popular show.
The original movie Highway to Heaven was written by Landon, too, and he went on to write and direct many of the future episodes of the show. The show, which ran for many years on the American channel NBC, completed four seasons and finished halfway through a fifth after 108 episodes. The show featured many stars, including actor Dick Van Dyke.
Another popular American television series, Touched by an Angel starred Roma Downey, who plays Monica, the soft-hearted angel dispatched to Earth to help people facing crossroads in their lives. Monica works under the watchful eye of her heavenly supervisor, Tess, played by actress Delia Reese. The show has a massive fan base.
James Stewart stars in this 1946 film classic. An angel shows the kindly but discouraged businessman what life would had been like if he had never existed, after George (played by Stewart) tries to take his own life by jumping off a snowy bridge. The film shares a kinship with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and is a timeless Christmas film favourite.
An angel named Dudley (Cary Grant) befriends an Episcopal bishop (David Niven) who is completely focused on raising money for his new church, and the bishop’s wife (Loretta Young), who has become lonely and unhappy as her husband becomes lost in his work. Grant uses heavenly magic and charm to help the bishop raise the money and to rediscover the joy in life, and rekindle his relationship with his wife.
The sky over Berlin is full of angels wearing trench coats that listen to the tortured thoughts of humans below and try to comfort them. One of these souls, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion (played by Solveig Dommartin). Peter Falk assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of human experience…like coffee and cigarettes!
This film is very much told from the angels’ point of view and is shot in black and white. It only blossoms into colour when the angels see the realities of humankind. This highly acclaimed film won many awards and was later remade in 1998 into City of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.
Angel Seth (Nicolas Cage) is an angel watching over Los Angeles. He begins to find his job difficult after he falls in love with Maggie, a beautiful heart surgeon, played by Meg Ryan. The attraction is mutual and soon his angelic state is a barrier rather than a gift. A choice must be made between his angelic duty and earthly love. This beautiful film was spoiled for me by its sad ending! Angel films should always have a happy ending…in my opinion!
A funny and sensitive Archangel Michael is played by actor John Travolta in this film directed by Nora Ephron. Michael – complete with large white wings – takes up residence at the Milkbottle Motel. After sorting out the financial problems of the lady owner he hangs around earth a little longer to smoke a few cigarettes, drink a few beers and enjoy a little dancing. When a couple of reporters discover the angel’s whereabouts, the fun really begins…!
The word ‘angel’ appears in many TV programme and film titles. In its broadest sense it offers a vision of someone who helps others. The classic Charlie’s Angels (both the old series and the new films) are about three expolice women, placed in a position of helping others. The ladies are not actual angels but, as the title suggests, they act as guardians to the helpless, working under the direction of the ever-invisible boss ‘Charlie’.
Another, very unusual interpretation is Angel. Angel made its debut in 1999. The title character, played by David Boreanaz, is a vampire tormented by the possession of a human soul. The show developed from the same character he played in Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Buffy’s love interest for three seasons.
Angel was born as ‘Liam’ in Ireland 1727. He later adopted the name Angelus, meaning ‘the one with the angelic face’ or ‘the dark side of God’, which becomes the fallen or negative side of the character. The Angel – ‘vampire with a soul’ half of the character, works with his group of friends and colleagues to rid the world of evil. A modern slant on the story, and a very popular series! Again, not a ‘real’ angel, nor does it pretend to be, but a character playing the part of an earthly guardian just the same.
‘The seventh angel sounded his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”’
REVELATIONS 11.15
Do angels really play trumpets and harps in heaven? Angels certainly sing in pure bliss. Their voices sound like a thousand instruments of joy and love. Many people have heard the sound of the spheres and I am one of those. But I’m not alone!
The American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote ‘All the great interrogatories, like questioning angels, float in on its waves of sound.’ It makes me wonder if he heard them too.
Lyn remembered a time when as a child she used to run and play in the tumble weeds in the California Central Valley. Lyn was afflicted with polio as a baby, and grew up playing in the fields with her brothers. They lived right out in the country and spent a lot of time alone. She would play in these fields for hours and the only thing that would make them stop and stand still was the beauty of the celestial music!
Often it would sound like angels in the sky, and she described it as being a little like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! They heard the music all of the time, and she says it was quite wonderful. As a small child Lyn felt that she seemed to know of a higher being, and was left in no doubt there was a God because she felt his existence.