The Body of Christ Anointed by Two Angels

A priestly act, performed by beings who are not priests

Anointing is a rite. In the tradition it is done by human beings holding an office — priests, and at a burial the people charged with preparing a body. This title assigns it to two angels. That substitution has consequences for any account of rank, because the nine orders describe governance, contemplation and message-carrying, and none of them includes sacramental work. An angel that anoints is doing something the scheme has no slot for and the church reserved for men.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1593 and gives Alessandro Allori, an Italian painter, filed under Mannerism Late Renaissance. The measured colour families are brown and yellow. No location is recorded for this entry, and no dimensions are recorded either, so neither is stated here. The subject fields class the work as female portraiture and as a religious subject.

Counted, not ranked

Two. As with almost every entry on this site, the number is all the title concedes. Sixteen of the 224 titles here name an archangel; the remaining two hundred and eight name a category, a count, a verb, or a piece of equipment. This one names a count and a verb, and the verb is the unusual part: bearers, musicians and escorts are common in the record, and officiants are not.