My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
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 Angel Binding Satan
| Artist | Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1797 |
| Type | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 45.1 x 37.5 cm |
| Location | The Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. |
The context for this painting is found in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, Chapter 20:
20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit[a] and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
With that as the context, we know that this is not a final victory – and *that* knowledge adds to the painting’s eerie mood. This is not a final victory. This is view of an enemy we must face again.
When looking at the painting, my eyes are immediately drawn to the angel, who is portrayed here as a combination of beautiful, determined, and in my opinion a bit disgusted. The angel’s expression is what sends your eyes to the other end of the chain. Satan’s face is horrifying and skull-like, with hollow eyes and exposed teeth, which gives the viewer the ability to impose his or her own interpretation onto his expression. At first I looked at Satan’s face and I saw blankness, and death. But another looks shows me an open mouth that might be smiling or laughing.
A lot of the ret of the enemy’s body is green, winding, and vaguely dragon or serpent-ish, which fits. He is described precisely that way earlier in the Book of Revelation:
12: 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The effect of this work leaves the viewer uncomfortable. It’s hard to look long at this painting without feeling some horror at the idea that this creature would eventually be set loose again. It’s lie seeing the superhero putting the super villain in custody, knowing that the bad guy is going to get out again later.
The period of time after Satan is released from the above painted chain, as described in Revelation, is often called “Satan’s Little Season” in Bible prophecy circles. Over the last few years, a lot of eschatology enthusiasts have been raising an interesting question. If Satan is released from his chains to deceive the nations, would the people being deceived know that he was released and that Christ’s 1,00 year reign had already happened? If the answer is ‘no’ then it follows that we have to ask ourselves whether we are living in that “little season” now.
