Angels and Demons as depicted in paintings the last 900 years

Hello Fellow ATS Members,

I have always been fascinated about how different artists have depicted angels& demons throughout the centuries. Since I haven't found any similar threads using the search engine, I thought it would be neat to have a thread showing some of the most beautiful paintings in history illustrating angels and demons. I have put them in time-order and have included the name of the artists and the year the master pieces were painted. Most of them are oil paintings.

As I was putting this thread together I have noticed one thing: Not much has changed in the last 900 or so years. Angels are still beautiful, and they still have wings, and demons mostly still look hideous and grotesque. The only thing I noted in the illustrations of demons through time is that a lot of painters have started attributing more human like features to them.

I found it very interesting and I hope you enjoy this thread.
Have a wonderful day!

The Angels



Wall painting, Church of St. Angelo Formis- late 11th or early 12th century




Fra Angelico-Annunciation, 1438-45




Leonardo Da Vinci- Virgin of the rocks, 1483-86 (One of my favorites!)




Jan Massys-Lot and his daughters, 1565




Rembrandt-The archangel leaving the family of Tobias, 1637




Benjamin West-St. Michael and Satan, 1776




Eugene Thirion- Archangel Michael, 1876




Abbot Thayer-Angel, ca. 1887




Hugo Simberg-The wounded angel, 1903




John Collier-The annunciation, 2000



The Demons




Robert de Boron-Demon seducing Merlin's mother, 14th century




Francesco Cennidi-Polyptych with coronation of the virgins and saints, ca. 1390




Carlo Crivelli-St. Michael,1476




Bernardino Parenzano-Temptations of St. Anthony, ca. 1494




Ambroise Fredeau-Guillaume de Tolose tormented by demons, 1657




Henry Fuseli-The Nightmare, 1781




Konstantin Makovsky-Tamara and Demon, 1889(Another one of my favorites!)




Mikhail Vrubel-Demon seated in garden, 1890





John William Waterhouse-Lamia, 1905 (Female demon seducing knight to devour him later.)



Frank Frazetta-Cave Demon, 1978

Ps: Please feel free to share your own favorite paintings of angels or demons.

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


Interesting thread. Most of the demons are also shown having wings as well as the angels. I suppose that goes with the theme of the devil being a fallen angel.

Henry Fuseli-The Nightmare, 1781 to me seems to show someone having sleep paralisis . The demon on the chest is the pressure you feel ,not being able to move and seeing entities seems to fit. As well as the title of the painting.
Or the women in it could be dead, but that was my interpretation

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


Interesting! I love Franzetta!

I am working on a demon painting right now myself!

s&f!

Originally posted by maythetruthbeknown
reply to post by Rainbowresidue

 

Interesting thread. Most of the demons are also shown having wings as well as the angels. I suppose that goes with the theme of the devil being a fallen angel.

Just goes how far they go with their fairytale. Angles dont have wings in the bible.

reply to post by PsykoOps


It was probably a way for artists to differentiate between angel and man early on in paintings, as they look to similar to tell what is angelic and what is human.

Just my thought.

I wonder where the notion that both good and bad beings have wings come from originally. I can understand that disease was known to come from bats, rabbies is common in bats, and that this could make a person crazy and violent. Same with malaria and mosquitoes, it has been known for a very long time that mosquitoes had something to do with this disease, but was only proven within a couple hundred years by science.

Things were known by people before science got hold of them and proved them. Scientists got their information for research from what people were saying.

On the other end of the coin, there are angels. beings that help us, like bumblebees helping us and birds that eat the bugs that bite us. Birds rarely eat bumblebees, they contain a chemical that birds hate the taste of. Birds also supplied us with eggs and food to nourish us and their voices were mostly soothing. I can see a little connection of the wings, the wings with feathers being good, the wings without feathers were troublesome.

I don't know if this insight is relevant, it is just a little association to what humans consider good. People also don't like some birds like blackbirds and crows because they are pests, eating what we eat. Blackbirds are ferocious eaters as are crows. Now seagulls will fish for food even though they do learn to eat our lunch at the beach and can be pesty sometimes. For some reason I like seagulls better than crows but crows aren't that bad when you get to know them, they aren't evil. crows are conniving and tricksters though and I think they are smarter than seagulls.

I guess perception through the ages may or may not be relevant to this. It is just an option.

I believe there are some beings that some call angels. I just do not have enough scientific information available to identify what these beings are. To comprehend something that is above our comprehension is a little hard sometimes, but that does not mean that what people call angels does not exist. I don't think they have physical wings though. They can get from place to place fast though, like they have wings.

Now I have exposed myself as a nut for believing in beings that science has not proven exist.

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


Nice post!

Some amazing pictures there.

Back in the days when I used to do ceremonial magic I was haunted a lot in my dreams by demons.

I used to have vivid dreams of them shaking my bed! They did look like those pictures, too.

Nowadays I am a good Christian boy and left that dark road. It was a fascinating time I must say and I know that this world is not all it seems.

I wonder what inspired these artists? May be they saw these visions in dreams or had strange experiences of visitations?

S&F to you, OP!

Originally posted by PsykoOps

Originally posted by maythetruthbeknown
reply to post by Rainbowresidue

 

Interesting thread. Most of the demons are also shown having wings as well as the angels. I suppose that goes with the theme of the devil being a fallen angel.

Just goes how far they go with their fairytale. Angles dont have wings in the bible.

That is very true. I believe the wings business is a depiction of these beings being from other realms and the messenger aspect; like the winged beings in ancient Egypt, Sumaria, etc, denoting that they came from the sky.

When I dreamed of the demons they did not have wings. They weren't very nice though

I have never seen this one before, it sparks my interest so now I am off to check out other artwork of Hugo's...thanks for starting such a visual thread...enjoyed it very much...

reply to post by maythetruthbeknown


You could be right there. I think you are on to something.

reply to post by Darkblade71


Thanks , and good luck with your painting, may the muses of inspiration guide you.

reply to post by PsykoOps

I think Darkblade got it right. It was probably just a way for artists to differentiate them from humans.

reply to post by rickymouse

Thanks for your thoughts, it was very insightful! And definitely food for thought.

Originally posted by Revolution9
reply to post by Rainbowresidue

 

I wonder what inspired these artists? May be they saw these visions in dreams or had strange experiences of visitations?

I've wondered about that myself for years.



Thanks again for all your contributions. If you have any paintings about angels or demons that you'd like to display, please feel free to share them.

I have a tapestry of this one on my wall,
as I have always loved this painting in all of it's forms.


As to where inspiration comes from for demons and angels, I think it is a combination of vision, emotion, and attempting to put what one see's/feels down on canvas, not easy to do when dealing with angels and demons.
Unless you have seen one, then it becomes a little easier....

Originally posted by PsykoOps

Originally posted by maythetruthbeknown
reply to post by Rainbowresidue

 

Interesting thread. Most of the demons are also shown having wings as well as the angels. I suppose that goes with the theme of the devil being a fallen angel.

Just goes how far they go with their fairytale. Angles dont have wings in the bible.

And the devil didn't have horns in the bible, either. The Christian bible says that humanity was made after them ("in our image") therefore it's reasonable to believe that angels/demons would both look identical.

The wing idea came from things like Cherubim but they were also covered in eyeballs and other assorted monstrosities so early painters stuck with wings. The horns on demons just came from demonizing local pagan religions who often venerated horned gods. Once you convinced people that Satan and his homies had horns, it became easier to convince people that all of those folk religions are Satanic.


In fact. according to Christian scripture, these would be more accurate depictions of angels. Notice how the angels have horns as well as wings.

Originally posted by Darkblade71
I have a tapestry of this one on my wall,
as I have always loved this painting in all of it's forms.

As to where inspiration comes from for demons and angels, I think it is a combination of vision, emotion, and attempting to put what one see's/feels down on canvas, not easy to do when dealing with angels and demons.
Unless you have seen one, then it becomes a little easier....

I often wonder if these spirit entities manifest themselves according to our own imagination and interact with that?

When I was opened up to all of that I had the craziest experiences. It was mentally much too beyond my capacity to cope.

I went into all the magic stuff after deciding that the Hebrew Scripture was just one of many angles of perception and stopped believing the Devil existed as such and thought all that usual stuff that it was just a demonization of Pan and other pagan entities liked the Horned God, etc.

The problem is that through that I ended up being in total chaos and torment and Satan revealing Himself and asking for my homage and worship.

Once I got that far I did a very swift u turn and went running back like a screaming and frightened child to Jesus, begging forgiveness. It took a long time for my psyche to escape from the darkness I had opened myself up to.

Magic is a strange business. Back then I was so successful in worldly terms; everything I wanted would materialise. Yet at the same time I was living in torment with terrors in the night.

With magic I think we disturb the natural order and there is always a big price to pay. I barely escaped with my sanity intact.

The rabbit hole is as deep as we wish it to go. I went as far as I did and came running back out having really disturbed myself.

Playing with that stuff is detrimental and nothing "good" comes out of it.

But fools rush in where Angels fear to tread!

Konstantin Makovsky-Tamara and Demon, 1889(Another one of my favorites!)

This is also one of my favorites.

If you believe in the concept of Angels and Demons, this depiction of Satan or demon seems to me to be more accurate. After all Satan was supposed to have been the "fairest of them all".

It also tickles a spot in my brain that bends my mind towards the idea of "Vampires", which kind of fits into the Angel demon theme.

It just makes more sense that Satan and demons have to be beautiful creatures, since they are supposed to have such great powers over deceiving and recruiting mankind. Most people are so enthralled, envious and desiring of those they perceive as beautiful, so it would be so easy for people to be lured in and trapped if Satan and demons are appealing to the eye.

Just the the way I see it.

I could be wrong though; but I don't think so.

reply to post by Revolution9

I often wonder if these spirit entities manifest themselves according to our own imagination and interact with that?

To a point I think they do.

Demons especially, as they manipulate the mind to install fear and a whole host of negative emotional states.
They use what you fear against you.

Originally posted by Revolution9

Once I got that far I did a very swift u turn and went running back like a screaming and frightened child to Jesus, begging forgiveness. It took a long time for my psyche to escape from the darkness I had opened myself up to.

Magic is a strange business. Back then I was so successful in worldly terms; everything I wanted would materialise. Yet at the same time I was living in torment with terrors in the night.

Almost word-for-word, you described my experience of briefly venturing into Christianity. I'm also glad to have escaped with my sanity and now reside within the loving arms of the horned gods and goddesses.

Originally posted by NightSkyeB4Dawn

It just makes more sense that Satan and demons have to be beautiful creatures, since they are supposed to have such great powers over deceiving and recruiting mankind. Most people are so enthralled, envious and desiring of those they perceive as beautiful, so it would be so easy for people to be lured in and trapped if Satan and damns are appealing to the eye.

I agree with you. How else would a demon seduce a human if they looked pot ugly? They need to look fair and beautiful to fool humans. More like this painting:


John William Waterhouse-Lamia, 1905
(Female demon Lamia seducing the knight to devour him later.)

Here is a very early picture of the one I am working on now.
Yep, it's got horns...lol


A painting of a demon could go many ways depending on what one is trying to say with it.

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


Some demons take by force.

It is not always trickery.

This is why there are such things as protection rituals and protection prayers/spells.

Not all "demonic" beings lie to overcome,
some just outright attack...
IMO.

After this painting I am gonna have to do some sort of angelic painting to keep the balance....lol

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


The wings









Intra...