Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
After the fall, a single figure
The subject of the rebel host is a mass subject: a sky full of falling bodies, a battle, an expulsion. This title records something else — one fallen angel, alone. That shift is characteristic of the nineteenth century, which took a figure defined by an event and turned it into a figure defined by a state. There is no episode named here, and no other presence.
What the record holds
The catalogue dates the work to 1868 and gives Alexandre Cabanel, a French painter, with the style term Academicism. The measured colour family is ochre. The recorded location is a private collection, so this entry describes a work not on public view. No dimensions are given in the record.
A rank that has been removed
The tradition's nine orders describe standing before God, and a fallen angel is by definition outside the scheme. That is what makes the type useful to painters working long after altarpieces stopped being commissioned: a figure with wings, no rank, no attribute, no errand, and nothing to do. Michael can only be painted fighting; Gabriel can only be painted announcing. A fallen angel can be painted simply existing, which is why the nineteenth century produced so many of them and so few archangels.
Sources
4 references- Cabanel, Alexandre — Getty ULAN
French painter, 1823-1889
- Alexandre Cabanel — Wikipedia
Alexandre Cabanel (French: [alɛksɑ̃dʁ(ə) kabanɛl]; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. He wa
- The Fallen Angel (painting) — Wikipedia
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
- Alexandre Cabanel - Fallen Angel — Wikimedia Commons
High-resolution image of the work, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
