Angels
and Demons in Art
by Rosa Giorgi
Windsor Books International, Oxford, UK,
2005
384 pp, illus. Paper, $24.95
ISBN: 0-89236-830-6.
Reviewed by Martha Blassnigg
University of Plymouth
martha.blassnigg@gmail.com
Angels and Demons in Art is the
English edition by the J. Paul Getty Museum
in Los Angeles of the Italian publication,
Angeli e demoni (Mondadori Electa
S.p.A., Milan, 2003), by Rosa Giorgi,
edited by Stefano Zuffi and translated
by Rosanna M. Giammanco Frongia. It is
the seventh volume in the series, "A
Guide to Imagery," by the J. Paul
Getty Museum. The book is a handy reference,
measuring 7.9 x 5.5 inches and contains
over 350 pages of illustrations with small,
short textual supplements. As one would
expect from this publisher, the reproductions
are of outstanding quality. This is no
casual excursion into an exotic spiritual
realm but a serious pictorial art-history
essay.
Through text and annotations to the images
this book explores the topics of angels
and demons by looking at a broader thematic
context and not by simple binary oppositions.
It should not be confused with many of
the existing illustrated books on angels
and/or demons that are often serendipitous
collections driven by either a dichotomy
between good/evil, heaven/earth, angel/demon
or simply focus on the variety of angelic
depictions through history as an iconographic
exploration. Giorgi’s approach as
an art historian specializing in iconography,
is as one would expect very different,
innovative, and illuminating. Her treatment
of the subject is rather an exploration
of the vast spectrum of the human imaginary
and metaphysical aspirations; a sophisticated
and subtle journey, including the unconscious,
the imaginary, the religious, the fantastic
as well as a philosophical, theological
and art-historian discourse in a compilation
that might be described as a pictorial,
iconographic anthology of the human imaginary.
The historical narrative structure follows
an imaginary spiritual path that leads
‘from earth to Heaven’, as evoked
in the introduction. It ventures from
the myths of creation, the earthly paradise,
the underworld, hell and fire, to transitory
realms such as the Jakob’s ladder
and resurrection into heavenly realms
to the angelic hierarchies, ending with
the archangels. This journey also includes
particular topics, such as nightmares,
psychomachy (‘struggle of the soul’),
black messes, ghosts, dragons, demonic
animals, the ship of fools, homo bulla
(‘Man is a bubble’), rebel angels,
the antichrist, torments, Macabre dances,
the Tetramorph, Ars moriendi (‘the
art of dying’), Prayer and Ecstasy,
the Ladder of Virtues——to mention
only a few. Mixing angels and demons (in
their broadest sense) affects the range
of the collection dramatically. Hiernonymus
Bosch (with the highest score of 11 index
references of artists) and William Blake
have their place in this narrative as
well as Francisco Goya, with his depiction
of witches and nightmares, Eugenio Lucas
y Velasquez and Albrecht Dürer (following
Bosch as second with eight index references
of artists). These stalwarts of the history
of the darker realms of the imagination
appear amongst the more traditional, classical
masters of religious iconography, from
the first centuries BCE to a strong presence
of medieval religious art to 20th
century paintings, such as by Gustav Klimt,
Carlo Carrà, or Pablo Picasso and
Marc Chagall. This novel listing is interesting,
but not what the book is about, nor is
it an anthology intended to cover a specific
period, geographical region or religious
ideology. Rather, it is a collection of
European iconography from outstanding
artworks throughout history that is used
to illuminate the depths and width of
human aspirations into other realms and
metaphysical ideas and concepts.
To keep this free ranging enquiry under
control, Giorgi has structured the chapters
into themes, from humankind looking at
the spiritual world in different perspectives,
into the depiction of the spiritual realms
themselves, concluding with a chapter
on the angelic imaginary. Within each
chapter the overall theme is split into
several sub-themes, as for example the
theme "The Path of Salvation"
in the second chapter treats the topics
"Classical Antecedents (Hercules
at the Crossroads), Psychomachy, Overcoming
Temptation, Works of Mercy, Jacob’s
Ladder, The Ladder of Virtues, The Trial
of Job, Prayer and Ecstasy, and Saints
Who Battled the Devil." Each sub-theme
is elaborated by a short introduction,
and the images themselves are accompanied
by several textual supplements that highlight
certain particularities, details, and
meanings of the image through a short
description. Here Giorgi demonstrates
her versatility in art-historical, metaphorical,
literary, and philosophical research and
insight. This transdisciplinary approach
offers a thicker account of form, meaning,
and context of the selected artworks.
As with every encyclopedic attempt (and
this could be classified as a kind of
encyclopedia for the metaphysical imaginary),
completeness is not the aim, but it is
a broad vision that constitutes a virtue,
and Giorgi should be congratulated on
this profound study of human imagination
and in the way she has succeeded in creating
a flight into metaphysical realms with
accessible descriptions and insightful
textual commentary based on high quality
research and a sophisticated selection
of artworks. The J. Paul Getty Museum
in Los Angeles should also be congratulated
for making this available in an English
edition. This is a serious study for the
scholar and an insightful excursion for
the layman, leaving one with a multiplicity
of impressions of the variety and extent
of human imagination.
