Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Angels and Demons!

"How Many Angels Can Dance On the Point of a Needle?" - While this theoretical question has been falsely attributed to Thomas Aquinas, it represents the type of question posed in theological debates in the middle ages.

Thomas himself is painted with a collection of angels in the old chapter house of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.  (Incidentally the three people at his feet are three major heretics!)


A more substantive question to pose is "How Many Angels Are Portrayed in Florence?"  There seem to be an extraordinary large number, seemingly approaching the infinite.Some pictures follow with no attempt to define them by hierarchy (ranking from Seraphim at the top of the League down to ordinary Angels, who might be at risk of relegation). 

There are plenty of sculptures of angels on the outside of churches...







..........and many more inside the churches........




Some are made in porcelain.......



 ......while others are in mosaics.....



.......and this fierce one is evicting Adam and Eve from their home in paradise!


This one is defintely a more ethereal one!



But the overwhelming number are in paintings.  I liked this one because his wings were painted in the colours of the Italian flag.....some five centuries before the creation of the flag.  How is that for celestial foresight?


There are fairly basic angels........

....and very sophisticated ones.....





Some seem to be coming in to land. 


Then there are the musical angels....




There are the cherubic ones.......



 ............And there are the gilded ones.







There are even the bored ones!



One could say that there are even useful ones........


as they draw ones attention to the menu!



Demons definitely do not get equal time.  Apart from the occasional one that is seen disappearing after being exorcised by a saint, the best ones represent hell in scenes of the Last Judgement...





However, it would seem best to finish with some more congenial demons, showing that they are not all black!



The pink one even looks quite friendly, although he does need to visit his dentist.






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