Angels, Devils: The Supernatural and Its Visual Representation

Guardians or Avengers? Depictions of Angels in Transylvanian Altarpieces from the Late Medieval Period

GUARDIANS OR AVENGERS? DEPICTIONS OF ANGELS ON TRANSYLVANIAN ALTARPIECES FROM THE LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD Maria Crăciun As is usual for a polyptych decorating a Marian altar, the altarpiece of Biertan (Birthälm, Berethalom) has an extended Infancy cycle depicted on the interior of the wings.1 The Flight into Egypt is part of this cycle. In this scene, Mary and the Christ Child have not yet alighted from the donkey, while Joseph is trying to pick the fruit of a palm tree. Angels, mostly clad in white, hover in the branches of the tree. This image raises questions about the relation between the image and its textual sources and the role of the angels in this composition. For an answer one may turn to the story recounted, not in the Bible but in an apocryphal text, “The Gospel of PseudoMatthew .”2 While resting in the shade of a palm tree on their way to Egypt, Mary and Joseph were concerned about the lack of food and water. Although the tree was full of fruit, it was lodged in the upper branches, far out of reach. This was an opportunity for the Christ Child to demonstrate his ability to perform miracles by requesting the tree to help. The tree not only made its fruit available but also provided water. It is essentially this narrative that is depicted in visual terms on the panel from Biertan. There is, however, one significant difference; there are no angels in the textual narrative, although they do appear rather prominently in the visual representation (fig. 1). The differences prompt a number of questions. What types of compositions do angels generally appear in? What can we make of the presence of the angels in the visual narrative? What are their functions? Are they meant to attest the miraculous nature of 1 Gisela and Otmar Richter, Siebenbürgische Flügelaltäre (Thaur bei Innsbruck: Wort und Welt Verlag, 1992), 68, date it to 1483 based on an inscription in the book one of the priests is holding in the “12 Year Old Jesus at the Temple” panel. 2 Evanghelii apocrife, translated and introduced by Cristian Bădiliţă, 2nd ed. (Bucharest: Polirom, 1999), 145. The episode also has scriptural foundation as mentioned in Matthew 2:13: “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying: ‘Arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt.’” MARIA CRĂCIUN 94 the event, or are they to bear witness to the divine nature of the Child? What is their nature and its outward signs? Fig. 1: Panel from Biertan, Flight to Egypt (photo: Maria Crăciun) Starting from the premise that angels are “heavenly creatures,” supernatural beings ,3 one wonders how this special status was given visual expression and whether there is any connection between their specific functions and the images which convey 3 Andrei Pleşu, Despre îngeri (About Angels) (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2003), 27-8, mentions that the angel is the superior of man, the one who shows him how he should be. Peter Marshall and Alexandra Walsham, “Migrations of Angels in the Early Modern World,” in Angels in the Early Modern World, ed. iidem (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2006), 3, define angels as intermediaries between God and humanity in anthropomorphic form. These celestial beings carry out God’s commands and reveal his will in a multiplicity of ways. GUARDIANS OR AVENGERS? 95 this particular status. Consequently, this paper will focus on determining the roles and functions of angels in religious narrative and the visual expression of their specific (supernatural ) status. It is particularly interesting to look at a well-defined body of images, altarpieces that were originally produced for the churches of the Saxon community in present-day Romania. Whether these artefacts were meant for the high altars in rural or city parish churches or for subsidiary altars in urban ones, the common culture which these communities shared and the peculiarities of their religious life and ecclesiastical organisation are a useful framework for understanding the iconographical choices.4 THE FUNCTIONS OF ANGELS In Annunciation compositions, the Archangel Gabriel is one of the main characters next to the Virgin and clearly plays the role of herald, which is suggested by the Greek word angelos itself (as this means messenger).5 Thus, before the angel is defined by his essence, he is defined by his function, and his function is to incessantly...