{"id":5329,"date":"2009-06-05T02:50:56","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T01:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=5329"},"modified":"2011-01-28T23:54:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T23:54:39","slug":"melancholy-lucifers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2009\/06\/05\/melancholy-lucifers\/","title":{"rendered":"Melancholy Lucifers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feuchere.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Satan (1833).<\/em><\/p>\n

I always enjoy it when a search for a piece of information about an artist leads to works you hadn’t come across before. Today it was a quest for the identity of the Satan statue above, created, as it turns out, by French sculptor Jean-Jacques Feuch\u00e8re (1807\u20131852). The Louvre site has another view<\/a> of what seems to have been a popular work, produced in a range of bronzes.<\/p>\n

\"lawh.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did actually know the artist’s name a few years ago since I’d used the statue as a starting point for the Satan figure on the cover of Cradle of Filth’s Lovecraft & Witch Hearts<\/em><\/a> in 2002. One function of postings such as this is that it allows me to make a note of details which otherwise might flee the memory. Here Feuch\u00e8re’s statue was combined with some squid tentacles and seated on an elaborate Gothic throne which is mostly obscured by the band’s name. (See a larger version sans lettering here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"geefs.jpg\"<\/p>\n

left: L’ange du mal<\/a> (1842); right: Le g\u00e9nie du mal<\/a> (1848).<\/em><\/p>\n

And the search for Monsieur Feuch\u00e8re led to this pair of brooding archangels by Belgian sculptors, two of the Brothers Geefs, Joseph (1808\u20131885) and Guillaume (1805\u20131883). L’ange du mal<\/em> (1842) proved to be too alluring (and perhaps too nude) for its intended siting in St Paul\u2019s Cathedral, Li\u00e8ge. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium<\/a> (which now houses the work) has this to say:<\/p>\n

Joseph Geefs and his younger brother Guillaume are associated with the turbulent history of \u201cThe Genius of Evil\u201d, which was commissioned to Guillaume in 1837 for the St Paul\u2019s Cathedral in Li\u00e8ge. However, the one that was sited in 1843 bore Joseph\u2019s signature. \u2018As it did not convey the Christian idea,\u2019 it was soon taken down. \u201cThe Genius of Evil\u201d illustrates the attraction to the dark side, the chasm, in the course of the Romantic period. Far from instilling revulsion, its chiropteran wings form a casing that enhances the beauty of a young body. At the same time it better illustrates the trend in the Romantic movement towards rehabilitating the rebellious Fallen Angel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Guillaume played safe by exaggerating the torment and the symbolism with shackles, a broken crown and even a bitten apple at the angel’s feet. All the same, this still seems a surprising work to sit in a cathedral. As Milton demonstrated, the danger for Christians in focusing on the trials of Lucifer is that his figure inspires sympathy. This was part of the attraction for the Romantics; God is omnipotent but Lucifer still chooses to rebel. That ideal became increasingly attractive throughout the 19th century and inspired further artworks, some of which have been featured here already. There’s a lot more out there so I can see I’ll be returning to this subject.<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The art of F\u00e9licien Rops, 1833\u20131898<\/a>
\n\u2022 Angels 4: Fallen angels<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Satan (1833). I always enjoy it when a search for a piece of information about an artist leads to works you hadn’t come across before. Today it was a quest for the identity of the Satan statue above, created, as it turns out, by French sculptor Jean-Jacques Feuch\u00e8re (1807\u20131852). The Louvre site has another view … Continue reading “Melancholy Lucifers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,31,41,23],"tags":[1952,462,1202,464,459,463,461],"class_list":["post-5329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-music","category-religion","category-sculpture","category-work","tag-cephalopods","tag-cradle-of-filth","tag-felicien-rops","tag-guillaume-geefs","tag-jean-jacques-feuchere","tag-joseph-geefs","tag-lucifer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-1nX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}