Spirit creatures, beings of sparkling light, celestial figures often winged because they are fast and aerial.
It is a collective journey of seventeen artists, comparing a series of depictions of angels born of different styles and techniques, united by a contemporary cross language. These are antithetical but complementary visions of a mysterious, unknown and metaphysical universe, which nevertheless has innumerable reflections in everyday reality.
Spirit creatures, beings of sparkling light, celestial figures often winged because they are swift and aerial. Angels have always populated the collective imagination as symbols of goodness and examples of purity. Such a fascinating theme has been confronted by the greatest artists of all time, resulting in an extremely rich iconography.
Adoring or grieving, musicians or singers, avengers or repudiated by heaven, angels are nonetheless entities of superhuman beauty. Beato Angelico painted them with tunics strewn with stars, Botticelli with golden haloes. In Mantegna’s frescoes are rosy, round child figures, as are Raphael’s celebrated putti looking to the sky. They take the form of avenging warriors (Raphael’s St. Michael and the Dragon) and inspiring truth-tellers (Caravaggio’s St. Matthew). They are the mystical and romantic creatures of the Pre-Raphaelites, almost a metaphysical tale in Dali’s Divine Comedy. These are the images of great pathos by Chagall, who painted a flaming red fallen angel over the horrors of the earth between the wars. And again we find them as pop icons in Keith Haring and as putti “
Victorians
” in a Fiorucci logo that has gone around the world.
