“evil may be depicted but it must be depicted beautifully.”
How do we depict the demonic and the devil in sacred art?
In September, September 17 to be precise, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Hildegard von Bingen. Saint Hildegard was a truly remarkable woman. She was born in A.D. 1098 to a noble family. At the age of 18 she became a Benedictine nun.
She was an accomplished Abbess, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian, and artist. Coming from a noble family she would have received some education but it does not appear that she had any formal training in these areas, they were natural God-given gifts.
From the age of three she began experiencing visions of the spiritual world. When she entered the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg, her confessor told her to write down her visions. It took 10 years and the result was her Scivias (Know the Ways of God) and she did not just write down her visions, she illustrated them. It was here that her natural artistic gifts were on full display. We are not sure if she actually painted the illustrations or supervised their creation. Nevertheless the illustrations reflect her artistic gifts.
In one of her visions she wrote: “I saw a great star, most splendid and beautiful, and with it an exceeding multitude of falling sparks with which the star followed southward . . . and suddenly they were all annihilated, being turned into black coals . . . and cast into the abyss so that I could see them no more.”
It is a beautiful meditation on the fall of Satan and his angels, calling to mind these passages from scripture.
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Luke 10:18
“…behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.” Revelation 12:3-4
It is an ancient tradition that demons are fallen angels who followed Satan in His rebellion. We do not know the details of the rebellion but the Church teaches that it was connected to the sin of pride.
Saint Hildegard’s vision showed the fallen stars loosing their brilliance and turning into blackened coal. Artists through the ages have likewise shown demons as twisted, darkened, versions of angels.
And while it is true that the depictions of angels vary in scripture, from six-winged seraphs to awe inspiring visions of spinning wheels covered with eyes, it is also true that angels are frequently portrayed as human-like figures with wings.
The earliest depictions of angels portray them as men without wings. It would take a few hundred years distance from pagan culture before winged figures became the common symbol for the angelic.
It was this symbol, twisted and deformed, that sacred artists used to depict the demonic.
In the iconographic pattern of the icon known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent, we see souls climbing a ladder to Heaven. In the icon, a ladder stretches from Earth to Heaven. Monks are climbing the ladder, but demons are seen pulling them off. Over the top of the ladder is Christ, emerges from Heaven.
In the top left corner angels are shown clothed in light-colored garments and having large, strong wings.
The icon shows a conflict between angels and demons over the souls of men. The demons are the antithesis of the angels. They are dark where the angels are bright.
The demons are smaller than the angels, a symbol of their inferior rank, and although the wings of the demons are not bat-like, they are much smaller, seemingly weaker than the strong wings of the angels.
In the Gothic form, demons were often portrayed as an amalgamation of different animal parts, implying they are also a perversion of the natural order.
By the time of the Baroque the appearance of demons had evolved. In Guido Reni’s painting of Saint Michael defeating the devil, the devil looks much more like a man, even an idealized man, closer to saint Michael in appearance. But even here there is a difference. The wings are non descriptive and small. They are principally depicted in contrast to the great and powerful wings of the archangel.
But even more to the point is the expression on the devil’s face. Michael’s expression is serene and confident but the devil furrows his brow in rage and frustration.
The Gothic Revival borrowed from Medieval and Baroque traditions. The devil is beautifully formed in physical appearance, but his fallen nature is discerned in his bat-like wings and his expression of anger.
I much prefer this later approach. There is a danger of course in making evil overly sympathetic or romantic. But a skilled artist can overcome this and lead us to a meditation on all that the fallen angels have lost. Their glory, a reflection of their closeness to the almighty, is gone and they are left with only a shadow of what they once were.
There is an old maxim of sacred art, “evil may be depicted but it must be depicted beautifully.” I think Saint Hildegard accomplished this with her mystical portrayal of the fallen. Modern artists have a much greater challenge but we have the great sacred art of the past to guide us.
Pax vobiscum