The Last Angel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I deliberately made this image too small so you'd have to click on this link to see it bigger! My brother Joe Prever, who recently started writing for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2010\/10\/04\/the-last-angel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Last Angel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I deliberately made this image too small so you'd have to click on this link to see it bigger! 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{"id":1890,"date":"2010-10-04T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2015-11-16T23:56:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T04:56:44","slug":"the-last-angel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2010\/10\/04\/the-last-angel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Angel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I deliberately made this image too small so you\u2019d have to click on this link<\/a> to see it bigger!<\/p>\n

My brother Joe Prever<\/a>, who recently started writing for Catholic Phoenix<\/a>, pointed me in the direction of the artist, Nicholas Roerich<\/a>, a Russian painter of the early 20th century.\u00a0 A fascinating guy with varied interests<\/a>, he did a number of religious paintings.\u00a0 I\u2019m always on the look-out for new religious art, just to reassure myself that you can combine theology with modernity and come out with something other than the standard issue \u201c my hands are bananas<\/a>\u201d clip art:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

(image source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I mean, there\u2019s nothing terribly wrong with this kind of picture, except for its pernicious ability to teach bored children flipping through the missalette that religion is for, you know, neanderthals.\u00a0 Duhhh. \u00a0 What\u2019s the deal with that, anyway?\u00a0 Why did 20th century art start showing modern men looking like stodgy, doughy, immobile cave men, while actual cave men were painting elegant, funny, snappy portraits?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

(image source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Why, huh?<\/p>\n

Now the original picture again:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, you can\u2019t see that \u2014 you better click on the link<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u201cThe Last Angel.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to wake up the art part of my brain after a long, long sleep, so be patient with me.<\/p>\n

Part of what makes this picture so alarming is the aggressive combination of different styles, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 The flowers in the foreground are almost primitive<\/a>, the mountains in the background are Chinese,<\/a> and those wild, roiling clouds are something like a combination of Cezanne<\/a> and Rouault<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the city, the flames, and of course the angel have the flat perspective, the brushwork, and the stylization of a Russian ikon.\u00a0 The contrast tells you what is going on here:\u00a0 something really different<\/em>, SLAMMING into the world.\u00a0 Days of wrath.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think this one is saying \u201cBe not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, as I saw it phrased on a bumper sticker once:\u00a0 Angels are just teddy bears with wings.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"