Amy A. Jessen (20th/21st Century) American, Large Graphite and Chalk on Paper. Depicts two abstract angelic figures with halos and wings floating together. Signed and dated 1998 in pencil bottom left. Original label from Bennett Galleries in Nashville, Tennessee on the back. 

Overall Size: 42 x 32 in. 

Sight Size: 32 1/2 x 22 3/4 in. 

#4511 

Angels as we envision them today have appeared in works of art since early Christian times, first becoming a popular subject for Byzantine and European paintings and sculpture. Normally given wings in art, angels are usually intended, in both Christian and Islamic art, to be beautiful, though several depictions go for more awe-inspiring or frightening attributes, notably in the depiction of the fallen angels (which have bestial characteristics), ophanim (which are spinning wheels) and cherubim (which have bird-like features). Theologically speaking, they are spiritual beings who do not eat or excrete and are genderless, although many historical depictions of angels may appear to the modern eye to be gendered as either male or female by their dress or actions. From the 19th Century onward, especially in funerary art, this traditional convention is sometimes abandoned, particularly as abstract concepts began to influence art and angels could become purely symbolic. The angels in the television show Neon Genesis Evangelion, for example, are based on descriptions from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Revelations, and show virtually no gender or even human-like characteristics save for a few; the mosaic Angels of the Heavenly Host in St. Pauls, Bow Common draw much inspiration from the grotesque figures of Picasso; and the character of Ramiel in the play Connections looks and acts much like an ordinary elderly man, though gifted with omniscient insight. How angels are portrayed in art says as much about the artist as the zeitgeist they are catering to, and the abundance of possibilities in the modern age allows the subject to grow beyond its original confines into subjects that Dali, Kushner, and modern film, books, and art can explore in infinite possibilities.