Angels 4: Fallen angels
The Treasures of Satan by Jean Delville (1894).
Some more favourite paintings today. Jean Delville produced a splendidly strange portrayal of Satan as an undersea monarch lording it over a sprawl of intoxicated, naked figures. When Savoy Books decided to put together the definitive version of David Lindsay’s equally strange fantasy novel, A Voyage to Arcturus, I felt this was the only painting adequate to the task of filling out the cover. That was in 2002; a year later Gollancz used the same painting on the cover of their Fantasy Masterworks paperback edition of the book. Lindsay’s book has been plagued by bad cover art for years so we managed to raise the bar for future editions. Delville was one of the great painters of the Symbolist school, all his work is worth looking at.
There are numerous representations of Lucifer but Franz Stuck’s is especially striking and apparently caused viewers to cross themselves before it when it was first exhibited.
Gustave Doré’s tumbling figure is from his illustrated edition of Paradise Lost, a book full of armour-clad, spiky-winged angels. Some of those wings have even found their way into my work via the miracle of Photoshop.
Lucifer by Franz Stuck (1890).
Paradise Lost by Gustave Doré (1866).
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The art of Thomas Häfner, 1928–1985
8 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Eroom Nala
Dec 21st, 2006
Idle curiosity.
Are there any good lesbian angel images out there?
“She looks just like an angel
But she sings so out of tune” – Declan MacManus
:-)
#2 posted by John
Dec 21st, 2006
Lesbian angels? Even the usual Victorian subterfuge would have had trouble with that subject. There’s plenty of lesbian-themed art, of course (usually by men), but the only angelic picture I can think of that comes close is Haloes by the rather obscure Louis Welden Hawkins:
http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/h/hawkins2.jpg
#3 posted by Eroom Nala
Dec 21st, 2006
PS
How about some demons/devils images from around the same time period?
#4 posted by John
Dec 22nd, 2006
As with the angels, there are many devils and demons in art so I think I may leave those for another themed posting.
#5 posted by Eroom Nala
Dec 22nd, 2006
That’s what I meant actually. Maybe your first big post for 2007.
:-)
Gary Spencer Millidge sent a nice virtual Xmas cars just now.
Cars covered in snow whilst I’m in the middle of a sweltering heatwave here in Sydney.
http://www.millidge.com/home/xmas/xmas.htm
#6 posted by John
Dec 22nd, 2006
Not sure what my first posts for 2007 will be just yet.
Xmas in the southern hemisphere must be strange since so much of the iconography is focussed around snow and cold weather. We don’t get much snow here but it’s cold at least.
#7 posted by MICHAEL P DOWLAN
May 20th, 2007
I LOVE YOUR WEB PAGE AND THEE ART WORK,
SINCERELY MPD.
#8 posted by Fred
Mar 10th, 2009
Here’s one of my own “fallen angels” collage/paintings:
http://fredchuang.com/fallen.htm
(hope this works!)
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