agents
The Angel and the Wing
wings, the angel
The mark of an errand rather than a nature. Note whether the wings are open, folded, or given to the figure by someone else.
Seventeen works here carry a wing, more than any other motif in the archive, and they do not agree about what a wing is.
In the Apocalypse a wing is issued rather than owned. Of the woman driven into the desert the text says “And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert”, and the passive voice is the whole of it. The wings arrive from outside, for one journey, and the sentence never says she keeps them. The coloured etching of 1772 by Molinier, after the figures attributed to Flamel, sets them at her shoulders and nothing else on the sheet accounts for them.
Where a wing does belong to the figure it marks an office rather than a nature. Michael has wings because he is fighting: “Michael and his angels fought with the dragon”. Blake's angel of the tenth chapter has them because he has been sent. Waite, writing about the angel Pamela Colman Smith drew for Temperance in 1909, refuses to fix what the figure even is: “I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female.” The wing is what the messenger carries, not what the messenger is.
Then there is the case where the wing does not work. Melencolia I, cut by Dürer in 1514, gives its seated figure a pair and she does not use them. Conway's reading is the one the archive holds: “The great genius with her mighty wings sits there, wrapt in thought.” A folded wing is a capacity not taken up, and that is most of what the print is arguing.
One thing is visible and unexplained. Twice Dürer put angels into scenes whose text has none, over the horsemen of the sixth chapter and above the woman of the twelfth. Nobody in the archive accounts for that, and both records say so rather than guessing.
Contested
Conway is a scholar reading the prints long afterwards, not Dürer explaining himself, and Melencolia I carries no statement of its own beyond the banner. Two of the seventeen works are marked here as observed and left unread. Hall's caption for the Cherub of Ezekiel is a transcription that has not been checked against a printed folio.
Sources
- The Apocalypse of Saint John, Douay Rheims, Challoner revision, : Quoted from the Challoner revision, the English text the archive uses for the Apocalypse throughout.
- William Martin Conway, Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer, : Conway's translations and commentary. A nineteenth-century scholar reading the prints, not Durer explaining himself.
- Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, : Waite commissioned the 1909 designs and wrote the key to them, so his account is the closest thing the deck has to an author's statement.
- Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, : Hall's text and plate captions, 1928. Transcribed here, not yet read against a printed folio.
Where it appears
Across the archive · 17
Plates that carry the symbol, tagged by eye and not yet decoded: first where it is the central motif, then where it plays a secondary part. Each opens in the viewer; the key and the notes come with the entry.
Central motif · 6
Two Peasants Hold a Red Robe, Mercury Rests on the Water BelowAfter Nicolas Flamel, attributed, date not recordedtwo figures in peasant dress hold up a red robe beneath a cloud from which a winged head looks down; below them a naked figure lies on the bank and another rests in the water; the Angel and the Wing as the central motif, by eye
The Cherub of EzekielArtist uncredited, colour plate, 1928a nude winged figure stands inside a flame-shaped aureole, a sword hilt-up at the waist, the heads of a bull and a lion behind his own, the wings rising above; the Angel and the Wing as the central motif, the Lion by eyeHall, 1928 “The prophet beheld four strange creatures, each having four heads, four wings, and brazen hoofs like those of a calf.”
Melencolia IAlbrecht Dürer, 1514a winged figure sits with her head on her hand, a wreath of leaves in her hair, wings folded behind her; instruments of geometry and building lie about her, a comet and a rainbow stand over the bay, and a bat carries the title across the sky. The square of numbers on the wall is four by four, every row, column and diagonal making thirty-four, with fifteen and fourteen, the year, in the middle of the bottom row; the reading that names that square is modern and is not the archive's to give, so it is recorded and left unreadConway, 1889 “Action implies contemplation, and contemplation is the subject of the 'Melencolia.'”
Angel of the Revelation (Book of Revelation, chapter 10)William Blake, ca. 1803–5the mighty angel of Revelation 10 astride sea and land, the sun behind his head, the seven thunders as horsemen; by eyeApocalypse 10:5, “And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven.”
Temperance (XIV)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a winged angel in white, a sun sign on the brow and a triangle within a square on the breast, pours water between two cups, one foot on the land and one in the pool; irises at the water's edge; a path leads to mountains and a crown of light; the Angel as the central motif, the Vessel, the Triangle, the Sun and the Crown by eyeWaite, 1911 “All the conventional emblems are renounced herein. So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas.”
Judgement (XX)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909an angel with red wings in the clouds sounds a trumpet hung with a banner bearing a red cross; grey figures rise from coffins on the sea with arms raised, a woman, a man and a child among them; the Angel as the central motifWaite, 1911 “The dead are rising from their tombs--a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations.”
Secondary motif · 11
The Virgin with a Dragon at Her FeetDenis Molinier, after Nicolas Flamel, 1772She stands on a crescent moon; the golden glory behind her is not counted as a sun.Apocalypse 12:2, “And being with child, she cried travailing in birth: and was in pain to be delivered.”Central motif: the Serpent and the Dragon
The King with Three Crowns and the Seven-Headed HydraAfter the figures of Abraham the Jew, from Nicolas Flamel, date not recordeda king wearing three crowns is enthroned on a cloud at the right while a green many-headed hydra rises before him; below, a red horned figure kneels and a winged figure in blue holds a key; riders on clouds at the upper left; the King and the Queen as the central motif, the Serpent and the Dragon and the Crown by eye; a red horned figure kneels in chains below the throneApocalypse 19:11, “And I saw heaven opened: and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true: and with justice doth he judge and fight.”Central motif: the King and the Queen
The Holy TrinityAlbrecht Dürer, 1511the Throne of Mercy: God the Father crowned and robed holds the dead Christ, the dove above them, angels with the instruments of the Passion around, the world below; the Divine as the central motif, the Angel by eyeCentral motif: the Divine
The Four HorsemenAlbrecht Dürer, 1498Death, Famine, War and Conquest ride down the people; an angel above; from the Apocalypse of 1498, by eyeApocalypse 6:1, “And I saw that the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals: and I heard one of the four living creatures, as it were the voice of thunder, saying: Come and see.”Central motif: the Horse
Saint Michael Fighting the DragonAlbrecht Dürer, 1511the archangel spears the seven-headed dragon while three angels fight beside him; by eyeApocalypse 12:8, “And they prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven.”Central motif: the Serpent and the Dragon
The Apocalyptic WomanAlbrecht Dürer, 1511the woman crowned with stars, radiant with the sun, the crescent moon under her feet, the dragon beneath; pairs with the Flamel Virgin on the crescent, by eyeApocalypse 12:2, “And being with child, she cried travailing in birth: and was in pain to be delivered.”Central motif: the Sun and the Moon
The Sleep of Reason Produces MonstersGoya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes), 1799a man sleeps at his writing desk while owls and bats crowd out of the dark behind him; one owl holds a crayon out to his hand, and a lynx lies awake at the right. The title is written on the side of the deskthe manuscript commentary, in Lefort's French, 1877 “La fantaisie, sans la raison, produit des monstruosités; unies, elles enfantent les vrais artistes et créent des merveilles”Central motif: the Demon and the Monster
Oedipus and the SphinxGustave Moreau, 1864the winged lion-bodied sphinx clings to Oedipus; by eye; the sphinx is a woman's head on a winged lion's bodyCentral motif: the Lion
Wheel of Fortune (X)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a wheel lettered TARO and ROTA with alchemical signs, a sphinx with a sword seated on top, a serpent descending at the left and a jackal-headed figure rising at the right; the four living creatures with open books in the corners, on clouds; the Heavens as the central motif, the Angel, the Serpent and the Lion by eyeWaite, 1911 “Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement.”Central motif: the Heavens
The World (XXI)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a dancing figure wrapped in a purple sash, a wand in each hand, inside a green wreath bound with red ribbons; the four living creatures, a man, an eagle, a lion and a bull, in the corners; the Heavens as the central motif, the Angel and the Lion by eyeWaite, 1911 “She is in the act of dancing, and has a wand in either hand.”Central motif: the Heavens
Hic leo, quas plumas non habet, alter habetMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the winged lion and the wingless lion together, one bearing down on the otherMichael Maier, 1618 “Hic leo, quas plumas non habet, alter habet.”Central motif: the Lion
On the same plate
