O telesnim karakteristikama anđela iz perspektive biblijskih angelofanija

Abstract

The problem of bodily and sexual/gender determination of angels is related on the one hand to their visual formation, while on the other hand it opens the question of imprinting ideological signs in the angelic representation. Angels go through a process of bodily and gender specification: although incorporeal and asexual, in Christian medieval iconography they will be represented in male form (eg Archangel Michael), while in later painting history they will be represented as androgynes, as children (putto), but also as girls/women. In this paper, we examine the biblical basis of the given representations, and show that, although angels of body and sex/gender are free, the categories of body/material and sex/gender categories become essential for angelophania. Biblical angelic passages use bodily and sexual categories when talking about angels, and dressing angels in symbols, sacred examples (Dionysius Areopagite), implies that angels are actually dressed in the word of human language, in language as such. It is the linguistic moment, as the one within which the body and sex of the angel himself will be symbolically represented, that makes this problem a literary and artistic theme of the first order. The question of the corporeality of angels is the question of humanʼs speech about angels.