November 3rd

 

flawed fallen angel

the goatherd of paradise

tainted by mortals

I watched a documentary “How the Devil Got His Horns”. It was another brilliant BBC programme. Basically it concentrated on the art history of the Devil, Lucifer, Satan, whatever you call him.

How the rarely mentioned character in the Bible took on more and more significance over the ages. Early depictions of him, were actually as an angel in the sense we would understand, beautiful, fine featured, feathered wings, even with a halo. But the image got more horrific and corrupted over time, horned, goat legged, sharp fanged, forked tailed, inflicting terrible tortures upon sinners. I can imagine the illiterate entering church and looking at these horrific frescoes and conceptualising eternal damnation. I can also imagine the wild imaginings of artists to make their devil more horrific, more violent and shocking. On the one side, for those commissioning the works, a prime example of fear used to control of course. On the other, the artistic license to have fun with a creating piece of work and really go to town on it!

The Devil is a complex character, I’m no Theologian or Philosopher, I’m not a believer, but I imagine that the Devil is much like anyone, neither “good” nor “evil”, just flawed, just as Jesus was flawed, but always doing his best, hanging around with the lowest of society, promoting equality and love, which led to his global appeal.

If the Devil was banished from heaven, then the last place you should send him to have a think about his actions is where us lot live. There’s no chance of redemption hanging around with us bunch of fucked up mortals.

From the BBC Website, detail from the frescoes painted by Luca Signorelli in Orvieto Cathedral. Considering how realistic and contemporary this looks it’s actually quite surprising this was painted in the early 1500s.