This detail of The Sixth Angel Delivers the Four Angels That Had Been Enchained in the Euphrates depicts an episode described in the book of Revelation. The work was painted in Spain in the late 12th century to illustrate Beatus of Liébana's Commentaria In Apocalypsin, which was written in the 8th century.
I included the close-up simply because the similarity between the angels' wings and the fishes' scales interested me.
This is a detail of an oil on canvas by Domenico Passignano, painted early in the 17th century.
The symbol I find most distinctive is that of the rainbow behind the Risen Christ, the bow arced between the ranks of angels. It evokes the covenant God made with Noah, where God promises that "never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood" Genesis 9.
I find it kind of funny to think of Saint Michael in miniature, but this illustration is actually a miniature (obviously enlarged here) on parchment from the Stammheim Missal, c. 1170. It's interesting to compare this picture to one painted in the 11th Century.
A missal is a prayer book that enables one to follow the words of the Mass.
Abraham Receives the Three Visitors painted by Marc Chagall in 1931 illustrates the story told in Genesis 18, 1-16.
As in Rublev's icon, the central figure's hand is extended over the wine on the table. Abraham's face expresses, to me, a combination of hospitable attention and awe. It's interesting to compare the expression on his face to the expression on Sarah's face painted by Tiepolo two centuries before.
Duccio di Buoninsegna painted a number of different images of the Madonna and Child. This work, Rucellai Madonna, was painted in 1285, one of his early pieces.
It's difficult to say what Duccio intended about the role of angels in this painting. Are they simply kneeling in worship? Or is their role a physically active one, such as holding up -- maybe raising -- the throne aloft? Because of the positions of their hands, I lean toward the latter explanation, but you might see it differently.
Guariento di Arpo (active c. 1338-76) visually expresses the idea of the "Powers", one of the categories of angels developed by medieval Christian theologians. In this scheme, Powers are seen as -- among other things -- bands of God's warriors.
This painting by Guariento di Arpo (active c. 1338-76) shows a Dominion, a type of angel which, in the angelic hierarchy, presides over nations. Traditionally they are imagined as two-winged creatures who resemble beautiful humans.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) shows an angel coming to a very elderly woman and tells her that she is going to become pregnant. Tiepolo paints an expression on her face that looks both astonished and grateful: an old story painted with contemporary aspects, such as the woman's clothing.
Elijah and the Angel by Bernardino Luini (1521). Elijah, fleeing the wrath of the Israelite queen Jezebel, begged God to let him die. He fell asleep in the desert and was awakened twice by an angel. Each time the angel told Elijah to eat bread and drink water that had miraculously been provided for him, shown here behind Elijah's head. The figure in the background, who looks much like Elijah, might be on the path of the forty day journey Elijah is about to undertake.
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. I Kings 19,8.
This painting (c.1330) by Giovanni Baronzio of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist shows angels standing by at the Jordan River, holding the garments of Jesus. I wonder whether the red robe of the angel at right foreshadows the Passion of Jesus. The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Christ as Salvator Mundi with Music-Making Angels c. 1487-90 by Hans Memling. The three-paneled work is at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. The instrument at far left is a psaltery, a harp-like instrument referenced in the Psalms.
This illustration is from the Admont Giant Bible, a Italian-made manuscript given by Archbishop Gebehard of Salzburg for the foundation of the Benedictine abbey at Styria in 1074. The illumination shows one of Ezekiel's encounters with God in a vision.
This painting by Edward A. Fellowes-Prynne shows the moment at which Mary's "yes" results in the conception of Jesus. Fellowes-Prynne's work is rich in symbols, including -- to point out just two -- the rose that symbolizes Mary (on the fence) and the apple (on the wall behind Mary), the eating of which brought death to the world.
This detail from a c. 12th century fresco shows a seraphim, which is a six-winged celestial being. Seraphim are mentioned in the Bible in Isaiah 6, where Isaiah describes a vision he had of God in which God commissions Isaiah to be a prophet.
