Giuseppe Arcimboldo – A Halloween Offering

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Winter,
Italian, 1564
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

From time to time during the year I may step out of my role as collector and interpreter of religious art and focus on other kinds of art.  A few years ago I did an essay on the curious "portraits" done by the Mannerist artist, Giuseppe Arcimboldo.  It seems an appropriate subject for Halloween and I like to republish it every year for that reason.  

So, Happy Halloween to everyone!


















In the years when I was between ages 4 and 6 my mother went through a period of serious illness that required her to make frequent visits to her doctor. As she had no one that she felt she could trust to leave me with during her visits, I went with her.  

While she was with the doctor I was on my own in the waiting room and, while waiting, would peruse the magazines that were available. In those days it was mostly Life, Time and Look, with the occasional Saturday Evening Post (based on my visual memories of their format). There may have been other magazines too but, since I couldn’t read yet, I can’t be sure of their identity.  Since I couldn't read, my focus was purely on the photographs and other pictures that each issue carried.  I can't say that I remember any of the contemporary photographs that made those magazines famous, but I certainly remember many of the works of art that turned up in them.  My future as an art historian may have been laid down during those waits for my mother!



One day, in one of the magazines, I remember seeing reproductions of some paintings that both fascinated and repelled me. They still do. These are the notorious “composite portrait” paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Early Work

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was the son of the Lombard (north Italian) Renaissance painter, Biagio Arcimboldo. He was presumably born sometime in 1526 or 1527, probably in Milan. In his youth he worked with his father, most notably on designs for stained glass windows in the cathedral of Milan.

Biagio and Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Detail from Old Testament Scenes Window
Italian, 1549
Milan, Cathedral

He also seems to have worked in collaboration with other artists on various decorative projects in and around Milan during the 1540s and 1550s. 1

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Zacharias Naming His Son
From Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist
Italian, 1545
Milan, San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist
From Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist
Italian, 1545
Milan, San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Death of the Virgin Tapestry
Italian, 1558
Como, Cathedral

In Milan, Arcimboldo could have become familiar with some of the works of Leonardo da Vinci, who had worked in the area at the beginning of the century. Leonardo’s famous Last Supper is in Milan and some of his other work, such as drawings, including his studies of grotesque heads, was also there at the time. Milan was also the home of some of Leonardo’s pupils and assistants, notably Francesco Melzi, Bernardino Luini and Giovanni Ambrogio Figino. 2

Leonardo da Vinci, Grotesque Heads
Italian, c. 1494
Windsor, Royal Collection Trust

The mood of painting in these middle decades of the sixteenth century was what is now called Mannerism. 3 The art of the Mannerist period delighted in various kinds of visual extravagances, such as distortions of proportion, complex compositions (with figures often irrelevant to the supposed subject matter being given prominent place), grotesques and visual jokes. It was a sophisticated and deliberately “in” style of art, highly suited for an aristocratic and learned audience, but not well suited for straightforward didactic purposes. One could say, in fact, that in Mannerist art the complexity of the composition and elegance of execution took precedence over content and meaning.

Move to the North

In 1562 Giuseppe moved north of the Alps to offer his services to the King of the Romans (eventually also Holy Roman Emperor), Maximilian II. His move from Milan may have been precipitated by the episcopate of Cardinal (later Saint) Charles Borromeo. Cardinal Borromeo preferred artists who were able to focus their production on a more straightforward and serious presentation of the truths of the faith. In this way he anticipated the aims of what became known as Counter-Reformation art or Tridentine art (named after the reforming Council of Trent, which met in northern Italy from 1545 - 1563). At the imperial court Arcimboldo could hope to obtain work from the kind of sophisticated audience that had supported the Mannerist style in mid-century Italy.

Initially, he painted portraits of the imperial family and court. He also worked as a designer for the kinds of courtly activities that were common in late 16th-century Europe: pageants, tournaments, etc.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Archduchess Anna, Daughter of Emperor Maximilian II

Italian, c. 1563

Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Archduchess Magdalena, Daughter of Emperor Maximilian II
Italian, c. 1563
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Maximilian II, His Wife Maria of Spain and Three of Their Eight Children
Italian, 1563
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Costume Drawing 
of a Knight
Italian, c. 1585
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Costume Drawing 
of a Woman Bearing a Torch
Italian, c. 1585
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Sketch for a Sleigh

Italian, 1585

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Self-Portrait
Italian, c. 1571-1578
Prague, National Gallery

Composite Heads

Beginning in the 1560s he also began the series of composite heads that fascinated me as a child and continue to fascinate me as an adult.

The composite heads are human forms that are composed of flowers, fruits and vegetables or sometimes of other items.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Fruit Basket
Italian, c. 1590
Private Collection

The Four Seasons

The best known is the series of The Four Seasons, of which several partial sets exist. 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Summer

Italian, c. 1560

Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Winter

Italian, c. 1560

Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

Guiseppe Arcimboldo, Spring
Italian, 1563
Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Summer
Italian, c. 1563
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Autumn
Italian, 1572
Denver, Art Museum

There is, however, one complete set, which is at the Louvre.

In the Louvre Four Seasons, Spring is made up of flowers and spring plants; Summer is composed of grains, fruits and vegetables (among them grapes, melons and eggplant).  Autumn is made from fruits and grains, while Winter shows bare branches, ivy and those stored up sources of vitamin C, lemons.

In Spring teeth are actually lilies of the valley, while peas represent them in Summer. In Autumn a pear becomes a nose, while in Winter mushrooms become lips.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Spring

Italian, c. 1573

Paris, Musée du Louvre

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Summer

Italian, c. 1573

Paris, Musée du Louvre

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Autumn

Italian, c. 1573

Paris, Musée du Louvre

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Winter

Italian, ca. 1573

Paris, Musée du Louvre

The Elements

 He also did a series of heads of the classical four elements: earth, air, fire, water.  Two of the Elements are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Fire is a head composed of flames, flammable items and items associated with different forms of fire, such as candles, lamps, flint and parts of guns and cannons. Burning coals form the hair.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Fire

Italian, 1566

Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Water, who appears, from the pearl earring and necklace, to be a female, is composed of aquatic elements: fish, crustaceans, amphibians, coral, even a tiny seal. 4

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Water

Italian, 1566

Viena Kunsthistorisiches Museum

Two other paintings from this Elements series are currently held in private collections.

The first of these is Earth.  This head is made up of various animals, both predator and prey, all positioned to create the features of a head, including half of the head of an elephant, which creates the ear and side of the cheek, while a fox creates the cheek, even as it snarls at the hare, which substitutes for the nose.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Earth
Italian, 1566
Private Collection

Air is a bearded character, composed of the bodies of birds and birds nests.  The goatee beard is formed by the tail of a pheasant, whose head is being inspected by a rooster with a plumy blackish tail.  The nose is the head of a turkey and the brow is formed by the body of a duck.  The hair is made up of the heads and beaks of multiple small birds.  A fanning peacock creates a kind of ruff where the neck should be. 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Air
Italian, 1566
Private Collection

The great detail in these works reflects the detailed studies of animals and birds which Arcimboldo made during his years in Prague.  Some of these works can be seen in a manuscript dating from 1575 which is held in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Study of a Lesser Kestrel and Flowers

Italian, c. 1575

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Study of a Stag and Violets

Italian, c. 1575

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

Composite "Portraits"

The composite heads are sometimes “portraits” of actual individuals. For example, the well-known Vertumnus is a portrait of the Emperor Rudolf II (son of Maximilian II).

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Vertumnus

Italian, c. 1590

Skokloster (Sweden), Skokloster Castle

Other portraits are visual jokes, based on the profession of the “sitter”. The painting called The Librarian, made up of books, is presumed to be a portrait of the court historian, Wolfgang Lazius.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Librarian
Italian, c. 1566
Skokloster (Sweden), Skokloster Castle

Similarly, the painting known as The Waiter is made up of barrels, jugs, serving implements (primarily ones for serving drink) and the keys to the wine cellar.  

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Waiter
Italian, 1574
Private Collection

And some are both visual jokes and optical illusions, as for instance the painting titled, The Cook. In that painting we see a platter of roasted meats in the process of being uncovered. But, when it is turned upside down, it becomes a face and the platter becomes a hat.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Cook
Italian, 1570
Stockholm, National Museum

Similarly with the painting known as the Vegetable Gardener.  When the painting is turned upside down, the gardener's "hat" becomes a bowl full of vegetables.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Vegetable Gardener
Italian, c. 1587-1590
Cremona, Museo Civico 'Ala Ponzone'

Final Years

In his final years Arcimboldo painted a head called The Four Seasons in One Head, which may be a self-portrait. In it the flowers of spring, the grains and fruits of summer and autumn and the dead branches of winter all combine.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Four Seasons in One Head
Italian, c. 1590
Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Self-Portrait
Italian, 1587
Genoa, Palazzo Russo

Compare this self-portrait to the earlier one above.  Notice that in this image Arcimboldo treats his hair, beard and ruff as if they were made of paper or wood shavings.  It is as if he is treating his own self-portrait details as in a composite head.

These composite heads combine a keen, almost scientific, observation of natural elements, vegetable and animal, and of man-made items such as cannons, candles and books, with a playful and ingenious sense of design. Some have seen them as the result of mental illness, but they are more probably expressions of the taste for oddity and the grotesque that can be seen in much of late 16th-century art, especially of the Mannerist art that was associated with the secular courts of the time (as opposed to art intended for the decoration of churches).

Bernard Palissy, Platter
French, c. 1580
Paris, Musée du Louvre

One need only look at the “rustic” pottery of Bernard Palissy in Paris, with its casts of creepy crawlies, and at the grotesque doorways of the house built by the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro on Via Gregoriana in Rome to see this mood expressed in the minor arts and in architecture.

Palazzo Zuccari, Doorway
Italian, 1592
Rome, Via Gregoriana 28

Much of this work was regarded by patrons as clever and interesting. Emperor Rudolf II clearly felt this way about Arcimboldo’s paintings because he placed them in his Kunstkammer in Prague. A Kunstkammer (literally “art room”) was a kind of private museum of odd and curious items and included not only paintings but scientific instruments, natural specimens, clever toys, small statuary, in short, whatever unusual object appealed to the owner. 5  Emperor Rudolf’s Kunstkammer was famous throughout Europe. To be placed there was a great honor for Arcimboldo.

However, tastes in art change and the collection was broken up. It was also the victim of looting over the years and was, therefore, widely dispersed. Arcimboldo’s work virtually disappeared until it was “discovered” early in the 20th century by the Surrealists. They obviously felt an affinity with the precise detailing and odd combinations of the composite heads. Since then Arcimboldo has remained a kind of art historical curiosity.

I think of his work as a fitting subject for Halloween, as it seems to fit easily into the atmosphere of disguise and pranks that prevails in relation to this very old festival, which heralds the approach of winter.

© M. Duffy, 2011, updated 2022


_______________________________________________
1. For information on what is known about Arcimboldo’s early life see:

•  Kaufmann, Thomas Da’Costa. Arcimboldo: visual jokes, natural history, and still-life painting, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2009.
• Arcimboldo : 1526-1593, edited by Sylvia Ferino-Pagden. Milano and New York, Skira, 2007. Catalog of the exhibition held at Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, Sept. 15, 2007-Jan. 13, 2008; and at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Feb. 12-June 1, 2008.
• Kriegeskorte, Werner. Arcimboldo, Cologne, Taschen, 1987.

2. See #1 above.

3.  Shearman, John K. G., Mannerism, New York, Penguin, 1967 is a well-known study of the period.

4. Arcimboldo 1526 – 1593, Nature and Fantasy, text by Silvia Ferino-Pagden. Exhibition brochure National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September 19, 2010 – January 9 , 2011.   It is available online at http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2010/arcimboldo/arcimboldo_brochure.pdf

5. For informaiton on the Kunstkammer or Studiolo see: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kuns/hd_kuns.htm

© M. Duffy, 2011

The Surprising Guardian Angels

Follower of Simon Bening and Others, A Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
Flemish, c. 1500-1525
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 E 3, fol. 202v

 "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide.  Amen"

Children’s prayer to the Guardian Angel

"O God, who in your unfathomable providence are pleased to send your holy Angels to guard us, hear our supplication as we cry to you, that we may always be defended by their protection and rejoice eternally in their company. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen."

From the Mass of October 2, Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

What image do you think of when you hear the term “Guardian Angel”?  Is it a sweet image of a pretty, girlish angel carrying a baby in her arms, or of a similar figure hovering above some toddlers while they wander too close to peril?  Is it an image suitable for a child’s room, meant to be discarded by the time the child goes to school?  If it is, then you may be surprised that the image above this paragraph is of a “Guardian Angel” as well.  What’s going on here?

Belief in angelic beings is a common thread through many of the world’s religions, although not necessarily in all.  And, of course, skeptics of religion discount them totally.  However, for the last twenty years or so angels have been big business in the United States, and probably elsewhere.  These angels weren’t exactly religious, of course, because they were often interpreted as vaguely wifty “spiritual beings” rather than in their proper role as messengers from God.  (Indeed, the very word “angel” comes from the Greek word angelos meaning “messenger”.)  Instead, these were fluffy, sweet, ethereal beings who seem to hover around the world spreading a sense of uplift and peace. 

Fridolin Leiber, The Guardian Angel
German. 1900
Postcard Original

One of the most commonly used popular images of a Guardian Angel, very suitable for a child's room.

These “angels” are, in fact, the result of a long process of domestication and degradation of one of the most numerous of the nine orders of angels and the one that affects humans the most – the guardian angels.¹  For, while the archangels, that other group of angels that have interacted with humans, have retained some of the aura of power with which they are surrounded, the guardian angels have suffered badly.  And it’s a rather long and sad story that can be traced through the history of art.   

I first entertained the idea of doing a study of the guardian angels several years ago, but after a few queries on the internet, gave up.  The images turned up by my inquiries were all from the 19^th and 20^th centuries and horribly kitschy.  Nothing to see here, I thought and forgot about it.  However, recently, while searching for updated and new images of the archangel Raphael for the post “The Three Great Archangels” in advance of the recent feast day of the great three (Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the archangels named in the Bible) I stumbled upon an image that was actually that of a guardian angel.  It wasn’t late and it wasn’t kitschy. 

Masters of the Delft Grisailles, A Guardian Angel

From a Book of Hours

Dutch (Delft), c. 1440-1460

The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek

MS KB 74 G 35, fol. 83v

To my great surprise, a renewed search for guardian angel images turned up many, many, many that weren’t kitschy at all.  Apparently, in the years since my initial searches, museums and libraries around the world have made the images in their collections accessible and searchable and they include many images of these angels that were missing before. 

The Angelus Custos

The idea of a guardian angel goes far back into time and exists in many cultures and religions in one form or another.  Most relevant for this discussion is the belief in ancient Judaism that such beings exist.  Psalm 91 makes this belief clear. 

“Because you have the LORD for your refuge
and have made the Most High your stronghold,
No evil shall befall you,
no affliction come near your tent.
For he commands his angels with regard to you,
to guard you wherever you go.
With their hands they shall support you,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You can tread upon the asp and the viper,
trample the lion and the dragon.”

Psalm 91:9-13

An angel is assigned to every person, whose duty is to guard that person from harm and evil. 

This passed into Christian belief.  Indeed, it is referred to quite prominently in the New Testament accounts of the temptation of Jesus by Satan at the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4:5-7, Luke 4:9-12). 

 

The Suffrage of the Guardian Angel

By the high Middle Ages belief in an individual guardian angel was well established.  This is also the period in which we begin to see the appearance of Books of Hours.  These were prayer books used by literate lay persons who wished to follow, in a modified manner, some of the prayer practices that had been introduced into the Christian life by the monastic orders.  In the monasteries monks were required to pray at several set hours of the day.  Each service of prayer included Biblical texts, especially the psalms, but including excerpts from other books of the Bible.  There were also prayers and litanies (strings of short prayers).  These services varied in length, but some could be relatively long.  Lay people desired to emulate these practices, but their more diffused lives made this time commitment difficult.  Eventually, a shorter format series of prayers developed, and this was the Book of Hours.  The “Hours” was a reference to the times at which the monks and nuns in monasteries and convents prayed.   The Books of Hours could be simple affairs of text only, or perhaps of text with the occasional decorated initial letter.  Or they could be grand affairs with beautifully illustrated pages, sometimes even full-page ones, for the more well-to-do.²

One feature of the Book of Hours was its flexibility.  Apart from some common features, those who ordered such a book could choose what prayers they wished to include.  This was particularly frequent in regard to the section known as the Suffrages, one of the last sections in a Book of Hours.  A suffrage was a set of prayers aimed at honoring a specific saint or group of saints.  Patrons could choose to include or not include whichever saints they had a devotion to, along with some that were venerated universally at the time, like Saint John the Baptist or Saint Catherine of Alexandria.  This mirrors the memorials to saints that are found in today’s daily missals or breviaries and which were common in that era as well, although, of course, the mass produced, printed missal or breviary does not have the same flexibility as did the suffrages of a book of hours, which was compiled for a specific individual. 

One of the suffrages that was available, for those who wished to include it, was the Suffrage of the Guardian Angel.  Notice that the word “angel” is singular.  Thus, this prayer was not aimed at the Guardian Angels as a group, the way it is today, but at one angel, the angel who is the guardian of the patron of that individual prayer book.  The prayers that are included in each suffrage also vary, but all are addressed to one angel, addressed in Latin as the Angele custos.  An opening prayer in one suffrage begins: “Angele qui meus es custos pietatis superna me tibi commitunt serua defende guberna.” (“Angel, who guards me with heavenly piety, I entrust myself to you to protect me.”).  Similar prayers are included in other Books of Hours. 

A Woman with Her Guardian Angel (possibly Margaret Beauchamp)
From the Beaufort-Beachamp Hours
English (London), c. 1430-1443
London, British Library
MS Royal 2 A. XVIII, fol. 26r

Books of Hours first began to appear in the Latin language, which was the language of all educated, literate people.  However, as literacy spread through the population Latin was not always the only language in which people prayed and which they learned to read.  Books of Hours in the vernacular began to appear during the fourteenth century and I have seen many of the later prayers to the Guardian Angel written in French, Dutch and German as well as in Latin. Doubtless there exist similar texts in other emerging languages as well, such as English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

The end of illuminated books did not end the idea of praying to the Guardian Angel or Guardian Angels as a group.  Engravers replaced illuminators in the era of the printed book and by the end of the sixteenth century to image of the Guardian Angel had moved out of books and into paintings.  And it is during this same sixteenth century that the image of the angel begins to shift.

 

The Image of the Guardian Angel Before 1600

Initially, the Guardian Angels in every one of the images that I have found did one of several things:

They receive the prayers of the person they protect;

The Luçon Master, A Woman Praying to Her Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1400-1410
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum
MS W 103, fol. 19v 
The words below the image are the same opening prayer as that in Latin above, but this time, in French.

Master of Sir John Fastolf, A Patron and His Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
French, c. 1430-1440
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 5, fol. 30v

The man is shown kneeling before his guardian and praying 

"Custodi me ut pupillam oculi fuit", which is a quotation from Psalm 17:8 "Keep me as the apple of your eye".  

Flemish painter, Guardian Angel. A Man Praying to His Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Library
MS M 972, fol. 24r

A Man with His Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1495
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 135 G 19, fol. 130v

Master of Nicholas von Firmian, A Man Praying to His Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1495-1505
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1170, fol. 122r

Master of Charles V, Charles V Praying to His Guardian Angel
From the Hours of Charles V
Flemish (Brussels), c. 1535-1545
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS M 696, fol. 56r

They guide their person along the right path to God;

Jean Pucelle, Joan of Navarre and Her Guardian Angel
From the Hours of Joan of Navarre_
French (Paris), c. 1330-1340
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS NAL 3145, fol. 123v
Joan's angel is directing the attention of the queen to the plight of the poor.

A Guardian Angel Encouraging a Woman in Prayer
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Hainaut), c. 1450-1460
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum
MS W 267, fol. 13v

Here the angel encourages the woman to pray the Hail Mary, which is also what the text below the image happens to be "Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum." or "Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you."

Guillaume Vrelant and Workshop, Man Praying With His Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS M 387, fol. 71v

In this illumination the angel is directing his person toward God with the words "Si vis vitam ingredit serva mandata" ("if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.")

Guardian Angel with Kneeling Man Before an Image of the Last Judgment
From a Book of Hours
Italian (Naples), c. 1460
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig IX 12, fol. 305v

Here the angel coaches his person to pray the words "Fete servitor tuus" (or "I am your servant") before an image of Christ as the Judge of the Last Judgment.

Master of Cornelis Croesinck, Woman Encouraged to Pray By Her Guardian Angel
From the Croesinck Hours
Dutch, c. 1489-1499
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS M 1078, fol. 121v

A Guardian Angel Encouraging a Woman (Nun? Widow?) in Prayer
From a Prayer Book
Flemish (Malines), c. 1500-1510
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 71 G 53, fol. 79v

Albrecht Dürer, A Praying Man with His Guardian Angel
German, 1503
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

They protect their person from the attacks of demons or even from Satan himself;

Master of Catherine of Cleves, A Guardian Angel Protecting a Soul
From the Hours of Catherine of Cleves
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1435-1445
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS M 917/945,p. 206

This image underscores the idea that the relationship between the human soul and its angelic guardian does not cease at death, but continues until the soul is either firmly established in either heaven or in hell.  Here the guardian fights with a demon over the soul of a corpse awaiting burial.

Master of The Getty Froissart, A Guardian Angel and a Demon Fighting for a Soul
From Le Livre des angeles by Francesc Eiximenis
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1476-1480
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francias 186, fol. 36r

In this image a demon and the guardian each try to persuade a living soul to follow them.  It appears that the angel may be winning here.

Georges Trubert, A Guardian Angel Protecting a Soul
From a Book of Hours
French (Avignon), c. 1480-1495
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum,
MS M 348, fol. 252v

This angel is leaving the demon in no doubt about the protective action it will take on behalf of the soul (shown as a naked child) in its care.

They accompany their person in the his/her journey in the afterlife, 

One instance of this activity is found in the book entitled Pelerinage de l'ame by the French author Guillaume de Digulleville in the middle of the fourteenth century.  Like Dante whose Divine Comedy was written about fifty years earlier, Deguilleville imagined his soul journeying through the afterlife and visiting the realms of hell and purgatory.  Instead of Dante's companion, Virgil, Digulleville's companion was his guardian angel..  I present a few of the illustrations to one copy of Digulleville's book now in the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris.

His Guardian  Angel Leads Digulleville into Purgatory
From the Peleriinage de l'ame by Guillaume de Digulleville
French (Rennes), c. 1425-1450
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 376, fol. 109v

Digulleville Sets Out on His Pilgrimage Through Purgatory with his Guardian Angel and a Demon
From the Peleriinage de l'ame by Guillaume de Digulleville
French (Rennes), c. 1425-1450
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 376, fol. 93r

His Guardian Angel Defends the Soul of Guillaume de Digulleville From a Devil
From the Peleriinage de l'ame by Guillaume de Digulleville
French (Rennes), c. 1425-1450
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 376, fol. 89r

However, even before Dante and Digulleville had imagined the soul journeying through hell another author, an Irish monk at Regensburg named Marcus, had written of a similar journey.  This is the Visio Tnugdali, written in the mid-twelfth century.  It was also an extremely popular book in the late middle ages, although only one complete and illustrated copy remains and is in the possession of the Getty Museum. 3

Simon Marmion, Tondal's Soul Enters Hell, Accompanied by His Guardian Angel
From Les Vision du chevalier Tondal
Flemish (Ghent), 1475
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 30, fol. 11v

Simon Marmion, Tondal and His Guardian Angel Arrive at the Gates of Hell and See Lucifer
From Les Vision du chevalier Tondal
Flemish (Ghent), 1475
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 30, fol. 30v

Monogrammist HS, The Demons Try to Possess Tnugdal's Soul, But He Is Saved by His Guardian Angel
From the Visio Tnugdali by Brother Marcus
German, 1515

In addition, the Guardian Angels are represented as serious and devoted adult beings, as befits their serious role of great responsibility.  

Jean le Tavernier and Follower, A Guardian Angel
From the Hours of Philip of Burgendy
Flemish (Oudenaarde), c. 1450-1460
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 2, fol. 297v

The Rambures Master, Prayer to the Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
French (Amiens), c. 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS M 194, fol. 131v

The Rambures Master, A Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
French (Amiens), c. 1460
Amiens, Bibliotheque municipale
MS 200, fol. 158r

The Dark Eyes Group, A Guardian Angel
From a Book of Hours
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1485-1495
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum
MS S.1, fol. 117r

A Group of Guardian Angels
From the Almugavar Hours
Spanish (Catalonia), c. 1510-1520
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum
MS W 520, fol. 260v

Further, the person to whom the angel is attached is also mostly depicted as an adult human, even when naked and reduced in size befitting their mortal condition.   This remains true throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 

The Image of the Guardian Angel 1600-1800

However, at the beginning of the seventeenth, the image of the Guardian Angel begins to change.  To begin with, the person whom the angel guards and guides is henceforth depicted as a child, although I suspect that this is initially merely notional, meant to recall the words of Jesus that “, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2).  It also recalls the biblical relationship of the archangel Raphael with the young Tobias, although the Tobias of the 
Bible is a  young man, not a child.

Francesco Sforza and His Guardian Angel
From the Hours of Francesco Sforza
Italian (Milan), c. 1491-1494
London, British Library
MS Additional 63493, fol. 112v

This image clearly derives from fifteenth century images of the archangel Raphael and the young Tobias, such as the image below. However, this image leads the way in which images of the Guardian Angel developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Workshop of Andrea del Verocchio, Tobias and the Angel
Italian, c. 1470-1475
London, National Gallery

Overwhelmingly, the function of the Guardian Angel became that of guiding their human toward God, usually accompanied by the gesture of pointing toward heaven.

A Guardian Angel Leading a Child to Church
Italian, 17th Century
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, Cabinet des dessins

Here the angel's gesture directs the soul into a church, rather than directly up to heaven.

Antiveduto Grammatica, The Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1600
Bourg-en-Bresse, Musée de Brou

On occasion, the threat of the demonic is depicted, but usually not in a truly threatening way.  So, the angel never needs to put up much of a defense.  Instead, the angel distracts the soul or gently deflects it from going toward the source of evil.

Hieronymus Wierix, Guardian Angel with a Child
Flemish, c. 1600-1619
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

The text below the image reads "Angeli eorum semper vicent faciem patris mei qui in caelis est.  Matt 18." This is a reference to the words of Jesus in his discourse on children in Matthew 18:10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

Cecco da Caravaggio (Francesco Buoneri), A Guardian Angel Encouraging a Soul with Saints Ursula and Thomas
Right Wing of a Triptych
Italian, c. 1615
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Domenico Fetti, Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1616-1618
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, The Guardian Angel
Italian, First Quarter of 17th Century
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

Girolamo Imperiale the Elder, The Guardian Angel
Italian, 1622
Washington, National Gallery of Art

A loose translation of the printed text reads:  "See the love of God for you.   Look to the guardian angel form heaven that he provides for you. To guard you from the devils attack and make them flee. He directs your course to the stars of heaven, where he worships God.  With such help you can climb to the heavenly threshold."  However, even with this strong statement the actions of the angel are more a gentle deflection that an attack on the demon.

Bernardo Strozzi, The Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1630
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts

Carlo Dolce, Guardian Angel Tutoring the Christian Child
Italian, c. 1630s
Budapest, Szépmûvészeti Museum

Carlo Dolce, Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1630s
Private Collection

Nicholas Tournier, The Guardian Angel
French, c. 1630s
Narbonne, Cathedral

Jacques Callot, The Guardian Angel
From Les Images De Tous Les Saincts et Saintes de L'Année
French, 1636
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Drawings and Prints

Gioacchino Assereto, The Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1640s
Birmingham (UK), Birmingham Museums Trust

Vincenzo Manenti, The Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1640
Subiaco, Church of Saint Benedict and the Sacro Speco, Upper Church

Alessandro Rosi, Guarian Angel with a Youth
Italian, c. 1650-1670
Private Collection

Attributed to Luca Giordano, Guardian Angel
Italian, Second Half of 17th Century
Cádiz, Museo de Cádiz

Francesco Albani, Allegory of the Pontificate of Alexander VII
Italian, c. 1655-1660
Rome, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini

In this picture, the Guardian Angel is protecting, not just a person, but that person's pontificate and the city of Rome itself.

Pietro da Cortona, The Guardian Angel
Italian, 1656
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini

Abraham Brueghel and Guillaume Courtois, Guardian Angel and Child in a Garland of Flowers
Flemish, c. 1660
Private Collection

Andreas Wolff, The Guardian Angel
German, c. 1690
Munich, Cathedral of Our Lady
The defensive stance of this angel is unusual for the period.

Johann Carl Loth, The Guardian Angel and the Archangel Michael
German, 1691
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

While Michael fights the demons on the wing, the Guardian Angel leads the soul toward God.

The Guardian Angel
Mexican, 18th Century
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

The Guardian Angel
Peruvian, 18th Century
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Andreas Faistenberger, The Guardian Angel
Austrian, 1701
Regensburg, Carmelite Church

During these two centuries an artist might occasionally depict a Guardian Angel engaged in some of the other activities that their medieval predecessors had done, but these pictures are rare.

To protect the soul entrusted to them from the attacks of demons or even from Satan himself;

Domenichino, The Guardian Angel
Italian, 1615
Naples, Museo di Capodimonte

School of Guercino, A Guardian Angel Protecting a Soul from a Demon
Italian, Third Quarter of 17th Century
Dijon,Musée national Magnin

The guard the soul of a child from harm of any kind.

Vincenzo Spisano, Guardian Angel with an Infant
Italian, 17th Century
Dijon, Musée Magnin

They present their person to God, or the Madonna or to a saint;

Giovanni Battista Grati, Madonna and Child with a Guardian Angel
Italian, c. 1700-1750
Cortona, Cathedral of Saint Mary

Francesco Solimena, A Guardian Angel and Saint Francis de Paul Present a Boy to the Madonna and Child
Italian, c. 1705-1706
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

Concurrently, from the mid-sixteenth century onward the facial characteristics of the Angels began to change.  Prior to this time the angels had appeared in the form of young men, their masculinity reinforced by their liturgical garments and their weapons.  However, after the middle of the sixteenth century this began to change.  The alb and cope, which had been virtually standard wear for the angels seen in illuminations, gave way to a loosely worn garment that slid off one shoulder or split to reveal an extensive slice of leg. As time passed more and more of the “body” of the angel was exposed.  And, at the same time, the facial characteristics, which had been those of a young man, became more ambivalent, gradually becoming the face of a young woman instead.  This becomes particularly noticeable after 1700.  Although the bodies remain masculine in appearance, the faces become "sweeter" and increasingly delicate.

Johann Georg Bermueller, A Guardian Angel Showing the Tablets of the Law to a Child
German, 1714
Augsburg, Cathedral

Marcantonio Franceschini, The Guardian Angel
Italian, 1716
Dulwich, Dulwich Picture Gallery

A Guardian Angel Showing the Cross to a Child
German, c. 1717-1718
Regensburg, Church of Saint Andrew

Attributed to Anton Sturm, A Guardian Angel
Austrian, c. 1720
Füssen, Hospital Church of the Holy Spirit

Jacob Carl Stauder, The Guardian Angel
Swiss, c. 1750-1751
Donauwoerth, Church of the Holy Cross

Jacopo Appiani, The Guardian Angel
Italian, 1725
Waldsassen, Church of Saint John the Evangelist

Joseph Weiss, The Guardian Angel Showing the Holy Trinity to a Child  
German, c. 1725-1770
Benediktbeuern, Church of Saint Benedict

A Guardian Angel
South German, c. 1725-1750
Eichstaett, Church of the Guardian Angels

A Guardian Angel
German, c. 1725-1750
Marburg, Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Museum für Kulturgeschichte

Antonio Bossi, The Guardian Angel
Italian, 1729
Ottobeuren, Benedictine Abbey Church

Giambattista Piazzetta, The Guardian Angel with Saints Anthony of Padua and Gaetano Thiene
Italian, 1730
Venice, Church of San Vidal

Nicholas-Sebastien Adam, Monument to Queen Catharina Opalinska
French, 1749
Nancy, Church of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours

Dominikus Zimmermann, The Guardian Angel
German, c. 1750
Benediktbeuern, Chapel of Saint Anastasia

A Guardian Angel
German, c. 11750
Donauwoerth, Church of the Holy Cross

Jose Vergara Gimeno, The Guardian Angel
Spanish, Second Half of 18th Century
Madrid, . Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

Johann Joseph Christian, The Guardian Angel
German, 1760
Ottobeuren, Benedictine Abbey Church

Joseph Goetsch, The Guardian Angel
German, c. 1761-1769
Birkenstein, Church of the Annunciation

Joseph Goetsch after Ignaz Guenther, The GuardianAngel
German, c. 1763
Rott am Inn, Church of Saints Marinus and Anianus

Ignaz Kaufmann, The Guardian Angel
German, 1779
Freising, Church of Saints Peter and Paul

Occasionally, older iconography did appear, but these instances seem to be few and far between.  Some belong more to the world of folk art than to the more assertive high Baroque and Rococo of the main stream of images that decorated churches during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Johann Sebastian Troger, The Guardian Angel
German, c. 1765
Fuscgbachau, Church of Saint Martin

Gaetano Gandolfi, Saint Justina and a Guardian Angel Commending a Child to the Madonna and Child
Italian, c. 1792-1793
Private Collection

The Image of the Guardian Angel in the Nineteenth Century

By 1800 the transformation was complete, and the Guardian Angel was now a female, concerned only with the protection of a child from earthly harm.  Guardian Angels had also become entirely feminine.  Gone were the exposed torsos of the earlier images.  Tunics were now modestly high necked, faces and hair were now decidedly feminine.  Gone too was any hint of spiritual warfare against demons.

Henri Decaisne, The Guardian Angel
French, Second Quarter of the 19th Century
Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures

Julius Hübner, The Guardian Angels
German, 1836
Berlin, Nationalgalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The presence of two angels is unusual.  But it is logical, since one is the angel assigned to the child, and the other is the angel assigned to the mother.  This attention to the logic of the Guardian Angels is missing in other images that include mother and child.

Alexey Tyranov, Guardian Angel Fighting for the Soul
Russian, First Half of the 19th Century
Location Unknown

This Russian painting is one of the few post-Renaissance works to refer back to the traditional images of Guardian Angels as defenders of the soul from demonic attacks.

Karl Gottlob Beyer, A Guardian Angel with Two Children
German, c. 1854
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Skulpturensammlung

Around 1850 to 1860 several changes occurred that would have an impact on future images of the Guardian Angel.

First, new images of the Guardian Angel appeared in popular media such as the chromolithograph.  This took the entire iconography of the subject out of the hands of the sophisticated, art-knowledgeable patron class and opened it to the general public and its tastes and concerns.  It also made the image of the Guardian Angel available to all but the poorest people in all European countries since this kind of image could be reproduced widely and cheaply.  Every home, wealthy or poor, could now have an image of the Guardian Angel if so inclined.  

Some of these chromolithographed images were didactic in nature, offering prayers to guide the viewer in addressing or even thinking about a Guardian Angel.

Napoleon Thomas, The Guardian Angel
French, c. 1859-11869
Berlin, Museum Europäischer Kulturen der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

The text below the image reads (in both French and Spanish):   “O vous bienviellent interprete des decrets de la Providence parmi les hommes pour les guider dans le sentier de la vertu et qui en les preserverant des embushes du Demon les dirigez d'un pas assure ver la celeste demeure, nous nous confiens en vous persuades que vous ne nous abonndonerez pas avant de nous avoir ramenes ver notre patrie.” (Translation:  “O you, benevolent interpreter of the decrees of Providence among men, (sent) to guide them in the path of virtue, who by preserving them from the ambushes of the Devil direct them with a sure step towards the celestial abode, we trust in you, convinced that you will not abandon us before having brought us back to our homeland.”)

Prayer Card of Child Praying to His Guardian Angel
Austrian, Late 19th -Early 20th Century
Wienings, Kaiser Franz Josef Museum

The Child prays: "Dear guardian angel, tell the Christ Child I am sweet and small and I am Hans! I fold my hands and pray, oh I can!"  Underneath the picture there is a Biblical quotation ""God has recommended his angels to protect you in all your ways. (Ps. 90:11.)" Note too that the angel is depicted as a child as well.  

Second, from about 1860 an emotional line appears to have been crossed in the depictions of the entire subject of the Guardian Angel.  A heavy dose of emotional content was added to the depiction of the angel which resonates to our own day.  

The first image seems to have been developed by the renowned German painter of the mid-nineteenth century, Wilhelm von Kaulbach.  In his day, von Kaulbach was one of the most ubiquitous and most sought after painters.  So, when around 1860, he contributed a design for an chromolithograph of a guardian angel, the image spread rapidly through photographs and the chromolithograph itself.  Further, it was picked up by artists working in decorative media such as paintings on porcelain and spread through the plaques and medallions they produced..  

Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Flying Guardian Angel Above a Landscape Blue Version
German, Third Quarter of 19th Century
Location Unknown

Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Flying Guardian Angel Above a Landscape Green Version
German, Third Quarter of 19th Century
Location Unknown

The image is open to several interpretations, including that the child is dreaming and is guided and protected in its dreams by its angel.  Alternately, it can be read that the child has died and that the angel is carrying it home to heaven.  The second interpretation, being the one that catches the emotions most readily may account for the fact that this image became extremely popular and was reproduced far and wide.  See this window from a Chicago church produced in 1917 by a German glass painter.

F.X. Zettler after Wilhelm von Kaulbach, The Guardian Angel
German, 1917
Chicago, Church of Saint Mary of the Lake

The image remains extremely popular and today it can be found on many items from pillows, to mugs, to bath mats!

This and other images attributed to Kaulbach, that were picked up by decorative painters helped spread this "soft" image of the Guardian Angel widely.

After Wilhelm von Kaulbach, In the Morning
Oil on Ceramic
German, Late 19th Century
Private Collection

The "soft" image of the Guardian Angel influenced many other artists, working in many different media.

Julia Margaret Cameron, The Guardian Ange (photograph)
English, 1868
London, Victoria and Albert Museum

Joseph Fahnroth, Guardian Angel Watching Over a Sleeping Child
German, 1880
Wrocław (formerly Breslau), University Church, Chapel of the Guardian Angel

Charles Maurin, A Girl with Her Guardian Angel
French, 1894
Private Collection

The Image of the Guardian Angel Since 1900

By 1900, with some famous images by the German artists Bernhard Plockhorst and Fridolin Leiber we had arrived at those nursery images which I described at the beginning of this essay.  They were followed by other artists, working in chromolithography, all over Europe and inundated the continent and ultimately the entire world with highly sentimentalized images of the "Guardian Angel".

Berhard Plockhorst, The Guardian Angel
German, c. 1900
Neuss, Clemens Sels Museum

Bernhard Plockhorst, The Guardian Angel
German, c. 1900
Location Unknown

Fridolin Leiber, The Guardian Angel
German. 1900
Postcard Original

_Fridolin Leiber, Two Pictures of Guardian Angels
German, c. 1900-1912
Location Unknown

A Guardian Angel with Two Children
German or Swedish, c. 1900
Stockholm, Nordic Museum

The Guardian Angel
Austrian or German, c. 1900
Willersdorf, Heimatmuaseum

Franz Dvorak, The Guardian Angel
Austrian, 1911
London, University of London, Goldsmiths

One noticeable trend in all these early twentieth century images is that they feature two children.  This breaks dramatically with the belief that a Guardian Angel is charged with guiding and protecting only one soul.  Apparently, the twentieth century ideal was one angel per family!

Consequences

What had once been an adult guardian tasked with protecting the soul against the attacks of Satan and with encouraging it to seek God had become a pretty, “spiritual” nursemaid, charged with protecting children from physical harm due to their lack of experience.   The more serious implications of the belief in a Guardian Angel, that of guiding and defending the soul of an adult from falling to the influence of evil, has totally disappeared.  What had been a belief serious enough to support a suffrage in the Books of Hours and a feast day of the Church had become a charming fable used to comfort children who are afraid of the dark.  Unfortunately, the well-known sing-song Catholic prayer to the Guardian Angel, cited at the top of this essay, belongs to the same thought world.  It’s a charming prayer for children, easy to learn and to remember, but not exactly appealing to adult sensibilities. Perhaps it's time to reintroduce some of the medieval prayers from those Books of Hours!

 M. Duffy, © 2024

1. 1.     For the angels see: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Numbers 328-336, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City, 2019 (accessible at https://usccb.cld.bz/Catechism-of-the-Catholic-Church/.  See also, Pope, Hugh. "Angels." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm>.

2.  2.   For background on Books of Hours see:  Wendy A. Stein, The Book of Hours: A Medieval Bestseller, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art at https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hour/hd_hour.htm. Also, the online exhibition of the Hours of Henry VIII on the website of the Morgan Library and Museum gives a good idea of how a Book of Hours was constructed, although this one did not include the suffrage to the Guardian Angel.  https://www.themorgan.org/collection/Hours-of-Henry-VIII

 3.  For information on this fascinating book see Eileen Gardiner's summary on her website Hell-on-Line at http://www.hell-on-line.org/TextsJC.html#_1000__1500_CE which includes links to an extensive bibliography.  See also her book Visions of Heaven and Hell Before Dante, New York, Italica Press, 1989 and her segment in a symposium in May 2024 at University College Cork's Irish Center for Dante Studies at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNmtEmnP8Qk

Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

 

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.