Awesome post! Also, this is a moment of serendipity! Did you realize that today happens to be the feast of St. Romauld (founder of the Camaldolese order)? :O
I did in fact. It's on my Clear Creek monk calendar for today. It's why I switched this post today with the one I had planned to cover Duccio. Duccio will come next week.
I could look at those paintings All Day. 😍 The artistry is exquisite.
I think my favorite part were the multicolored angels' wings. Is there a particular reason why they painted wings in various colors instead of just in white?
Well, angels wings are symbolic, not literal. It was the habit of the very colourful Middle Ages to equate God's glory in general with very colourful depictions. I don't think in the west the wings of angels were depicted in a more literal sense - like naturalistic big birds' wings, in white - until after the Renaissance erased the symbolic understanding of sacred art. So the better question to ask might be, why do post Renaissance painters depict angels in such literal, fleshly non-symbolic way as if they're just people with birds' wings?
Awesome post! Also, this is a moment of serendipity! Did you realize that today happens to be the feast of St. Romauld (founder of the Camaldolese order)? :O
I did in fact. It's on my Clear Creek monk calendar for today. It's why I switched this post today with the one I had planned to cover Duccio. Duccio will come next week.
Wonderful!
I could look at those paintings All Day. 😍 The artistry is exquisite.
I think my favorite part were the multicolored angels' wings. Is there a particular reason why they painted wings in various colors instead of just in white?
Well, angels wings are symbolic, not literal. It was the habit of the very colourful Middle Ages to equate God's glory in general with very colourful depictions. I don't think in the west the wings of angels were depicted in a more literal sense - like naturalistic big birds' wings, in white - until after the Renaissance erased the symbolic understanding of sacred art. So the better question to ask might be, why do post Renaissance painters depict angels in such literal, fleshly non-symbolic way as if they're just people with birds' wings?