Closer Look

Formerly part of the popular "Pocket Guides" series, "Angels" is published in a new edition as "A Closer Look", with a wealth of beautiful reproductions. This informative guide helps readers identify angels and their significance in a painting – be it from the National Gallery or from other collections. Angels are an integral part of Christian art, performing a multitude of roles. Massed together they may form a heavenly choir, glorifying the Virgin Mary or commenting on the surrounding action. Individually, angels can set the scene and engage the viewer, act as messengers between God and man, or become key characters illustrating episodes of Christian history. This book explains these diversities, and explores the surprisingly complicated history of angels in Western art. Looking at some of the most engaging paintings in the National Gallery, discover how artistic depictions mirrored the increasing sophistication of angelic doctrine, which eventually proposed the existence of nine types of angel.