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DouglasRamsey — Glory to God in the Highest
Published: 2011-11-28 19:28:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 25371; Favourites: 395; Downloads: 0
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Description
Acrylic on canvas 36" x 72"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
LUKE 2:13-14
Finally got around to repainting and having a quality photo taken of this one. Still not completely happy with it though. I really ought to try to sell this one off so that I can't fuss with it anymore.
In case anyone's wondering, the angels in my paintings don’t have wings because the Bible doesn’t describe them with any. In fact, the earliest reference to winged angels in Jewish literature comes from the pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch.
It’s true that cherubim and seraphim have wings but those are composite creatures with both animal and human features. Messenger-angels are described as having a more human appearance and even though biblical writers take the time to notice details about them like golden belts and gleaming legs, they omit any mention of wings. To me, these would be an even more attention-grabbing feature, so the fact that they aren’t noticed implies that they didn't have them.
Apart from the biblical descriptions, I have to confess that doing this painting may have biased me (just a little) in favor of wingless angels since I really didn’t want to deal with the visual confusion involved in trying to depict a multitude of winged angels.
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Comments: 76
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Great depiction of angels! To my shame, I didn't know that angels in the Bible had different forms, so I liked reading it in your description and seeing wingless angels!
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Well, even though the Bible mentions angels frequently it's pretty sparing with what it tells us about them. Thanks very much for your kind words!
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I really like the grouping of the angels. The "s" curve is rally nice--actually the whole composition works really well. Don't be so hard on yourself. Looks great!
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Thanks very much Jimmy. I do actually like this one better now with the recent changes I made to it. It’s just one of those pictures where you keep wondering, “What if I take out this, or maybe add this here, and then make this smaller?” and on and on.
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The adage is: No piece is ever "finished" you just eventually give up!
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still a personal favorite, the composition is SO amazing.
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Your paintings that illustrate the bible are breathtaking
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Beautiful! Outstanding!
Finally some one who don't go to the cliche "winged humans" for angels.
The vortex in the top kind of reminds me God from the Divine Comedy.
Congrats! Kepp up the good work.
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Thanks very much! The vortex was inspired partly by Dore's illustrations from "Paradise Lost" where it's created by forms of the angels themselves.
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Thanks!
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I really appreciate your request but I think the current digital photo of this piece would print terribly. This painting is very large (3 feet by 6 feet) so taking a quality image of it is pretty difficult, and really requires a professional photography studio. I do plan to get that done sometime this year but if you bought a print of the image that’s uploaded right now I don’t think you’d be getting your money’s worth.
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Means a lot. Thanks!
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This is beautiful 
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Incredible....I'm just, wow, I wish I knew what to say but I didn't want to favorite without commenting. Splendid work!
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I'm really flattered by that, thanks!
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What a unique image! Really powerful!
God bless!
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The only beings I ever read of that had wings were the four that traveled with the wheels and had the wings covered with eyes and the cherubim and the two women with stork wings that carried the pot where the woman was inside.
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Well, that’s right except the four living creatures are cherubim (Ezek 10:20). The seraphim may be another type of being since Isaiah 6:2 describes them with six wings instead of four, but who knows?
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yeah i get them (cherubim) mixed up all the time. and the six wing was the one i was talking about so thanks for that too. no wait- the four wing- uh! gotta find out again.
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I like the composition & sue of negative space!
-P.A.
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glory to god in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.
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We are featuring this on the home page of in our Featured Deviation Awards section. This is a beautiful piece and perfect for the Christmas season.
I like your take on angels. I never thought about the fact that wings are not mentioned. I really like how you portrayed the shepherds falling back on the ground in amazement and fear.
Glory to God in the highest!!!
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Wow, thank you very much. I’m really honored by that.
I probably should add that I’m not super-confident about angels being wingless, since they are able to alter their appearance at times. In fact I did another piece with an angel just last Christmas who originally had wings. I decided to include them because Isaiah says the seraphim used wings to fly and the angels in this story seem to do that. After I started working on this new painting though, and thought more about the whole question of angels being winged vs. wingless, I decided the latter was a bit more probable and he was “de-winged.” And for some reason, without the wings the piece seemed to take on a little more verisimilitude.
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This has got me curious, where did the idea come from that angels have wings? I really wonder when that started. Obviously it was a long long time ago, but I'm very curious why early Christian artwork has winged angels. Maybe it is because the wings make them seem even more magnificent?
Jesus ascended into heaven and He didn't have wings. Maybe angels are the same way.
Merry Christmas!!!
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Well, the idea first shows up in the intertestamental period with 1 Enoch 61:1 which says, “And I saw in those days how long cords were given to those angels, and they took to themselves wings and flew, and they went towards the north.”
The earliest known Christian image of an angel is in the Catacomb of Priscilla, which dates to the third century AD. Interestingly, the angel is wingless, and so are the other very earliest examples of angels in Christian art. The first known representation of winged angels appears on the fourth century “Prince's Sarcophagus” near Constantinople, and from then on, Christian art almost always depicts angels with wings.
As to your question about where the winged-angel idea came from, my guess is that descriptions of winged cherubim and seraphim (and maybe even those weird stork-winged women) were eventually applied to all types of angels. They are pretty mysterious beings and distinctions between them are easy to blur. Also, the idea could have been imported from other cultures, since Mesopotamian art portrayed protective genies with wings, along with a variety of demons.
Merry Christmas!
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