The Fall of the Rebel Angels

The event that creates a second category

Every other angel in this catalogue is an angel. This subject is about the ones who stopped being angels. The fall of the rebel host is the episode the tradition uses to explain how a single order of beings splits in two, and it is the only angelic subject in which the outcome is a change of kind rather than the delivery of a message.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1562 and gives Pieter Bruegel the Elder, filed as Flemish and Northern Renaissance. It measures 117 x 162 cm and the measured colour family is brown. The recorded location is the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. The record's subject categories are worth noting: alongside the religious filing it lists shapes, colours and textures, terms this catalogue usually applies to abstraction.

Who leads the expulsion

In the tradition the expulsion is led by the Archangel Michael, in his militant office and with the attributes that go with it. Whether he is identifiable in this particular canvas is a question for the picture and for the holding institution's record; the catalogue entry names only the event. What the title does establish is the plural: this is a subject about a host, not about a duel, and the falling figures are unnamed by definition — a name is one of the things the fall takes away.