How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
The Fallen Angel
Artist
Alexandre Cabanel
Year
1847
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
120.50 cm × 196.50 cm (47.44 in × 77.36 in)
Location
Musée Fabre, Montpellier
I generally stay away from reviewing nudity in paintings. In my opinion, it’s often done distastefully and for its own sake – either because the painter wants to show off his or her skill… or maybe because the painter wants to stare at the naked model for however long it takes to finish the piece. In many cases, something about it feels just a bit perverse.
Here the nudity is tasteful and purposeful. Cabanael depicts the fallen angel, as naked in his sin, just as Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden just after the Fall. His fallen angel is physically perfect in form, fit, muscular, and beautiful, just as you might expect an angel to be.
The power of the painting is the small but key detail of how the eyes are painted. The figure is angry, humiliated, tearful, and proud. The depiction makes the entity relatable and perhaps even sympathetic. There’s something of an arguing teenager in its eyes. Or if we want to make a pop culture appeal… there’s something of Anakin Skywalker in this look.
You know, some further reflection, Anakin’s hair in the movie is also pretty similar as between these two. Maybe George Lucas (or the casting director) had this work in mind for Anakin’s visual appearance. It should go without saying that you should not aspire to be like either Satan or Darth Vader, though based on a lot of art reviews I read of this one, it apparently needs to be said.
The devil doesn’t deserve your sympathy.
In any case, the painting is an incredible achievement and was done when Cabanel was only 24 years old.
The Fallen Angel (French: L’Ange déchu) is a painting by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel. It was painted in 1847, when the artist was 24 years old, and depicts the Devil after his fall from Heaven. The painting is at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier.
History and description
In 1845, while he was at the National School of Fine Arts, Cabanel won the second Grand Prix de Rome, which allowed him to move to Italy for a few years. Like all the other residents, he had to send paintings back regularly to testify the progress he was making during his stay in Rome. It was in this context that he painted The Fallen Angel, in 1847. Cabanel opted for a subject not often represented in French painting: the fall from Heaven of the Fallen Angel, who went on to become the Devil.
Depicting an angel expelled from heaven by God, the painting shows a saddened Lucifer, with his hands crossed and tears running from his eyes. He lies on the ground, naked, while angels fly in the sky above to show the glory of God.
Analysis
A romantic work, the figure of Lucifer is shown as a nude, handsome young man reclining, hands clasped, his face partially obscured by his arm. His wings are mostly white at the scapulars but dappled with blue and gold while the primary feathers are a rich dark navy that blend into the dark foreground. A thorny vine trails behind his legs and near his feet. In the sky numerous less detailed angels are in flight all towards the same direction Lucifer faces. Lucifer glares out angrily from behind his arm, tears visibly in his eyes.
In Rome, Cabanel meditated at length on the theme of the fallen angel. In this depiction, the angel is dressed in a large drape and faces away from the viewer.
Detail, depicting Lucifer in a state of rage.
For a great review of the painting, by someone more qualified than myself to give one, I direct you to the following video:
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