ANGEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI. 



165 



operas. He has also composed several oratorios and 

 psalms, written mostly by Metastasio. 



ANGEL (from the Greek ayy&es, a messenger). Un- 

 der the articles Demon and Demonology is shown in 

 wliat way the idea of angels was introduced into Chris- 

 tianity ; here we shall only explain how this idea was 

 further developed. Under the name of angels is under- 

 stood a kind of good spirits, having a near connexion 

 and communication with men. In the Jewish theolo- 

 gy, they were divided into different classes and ranks. 

 These have been most accurately described by the 

 author of the Heavenly Hierarchy, ascribed to Diony- 

 sius the Areopagite. He forms them into three clas- 

 ses, each containing as many subdivisions. Accord- 

 ing to the majority of writers, they were created long 

 oefore the visible world ; according to others, at the 

 same time as the heaven and earth, when God com- 

 manded the light to be, and his spirit moved over the 

 waters. Their office is to serve the Deity, whose 

 agents they are in effecting his good purposes, as the 

 tutelary spirits of whole nations and kingdoms, as the 

 heralds of his commands, as the guardians of parti- 

 cular individuals, and the directors of particular 

 events. They were supposed to be spirits with 

 ethereal bodies. This conception of them was esta- 

 blished as a doctrine of the church by the council of 

 Nice (in 787), but is at variance with the decision of 

 the Lateran council of 1215, which makes them im- 

 material beings. Those who regard the body merely 

 as an incumbrance, or prison of the soul, and conceive 

 a very exalted idea of pure spirits, hold angels to be 

 such spirits, and explain their visible appearance by 

 supposing that they have the power of assuming at 

 will bodily forms and a human shape. Those who 

 consider it no imperfection for a spirit to exist in a 

 Ixxly, maintain that angels have bodies. As finite 

 beings, they must have some place where they reside. 

 The ancients easily found a habitation for them in 

 their heaven, which was conceived to be a vast azure 

 hull, where God dwelt with his angels ; but we, who 

 have very different ideas of heaven and the universe, 

 cm only suppose that, if they still operate on human 

 things, they dwell invisibly with and about us. As 

 to their names, the Catholic church receives only three 

 as sanctioned by the Scriptures, Michael, Gabriel 

 and Raphael. Among the heresies of Aldebert, con- 

 demned by a Catholic council, at Rome, under pope 

 Zachary, 704, he was accused of invoking angels by 

 unknown names, such as Uriel, Raguel, Simiel, &c. 

 It was expressly declared that these were not names 

 of angels, but of evil spirits. The later Catholics, 

 however, have now changed their views in this re- 

 spect, and the Catholic Sonnenberg has, after the ex- 

 ample of Milton and Klopstock, not only mentioned 

 other angels, but invented names for them. Sweden- 

 borg gives in his works a classification and detailed 

 description of the angels. It is known that his fol- 

 lowers believe in the constant influence of angels and 

 the spirits of the deceased. 



ANGEL ; a gold coin formerly current in England, 

 so named from having the representation of an angel 

 upon it. It weighed four pennyweights, and was 

 twenty-three carats and a half fine. It had different 

 values in different reigns ; but is now only an imagin- 

 ary sum, or money ot account, implying ten shillings. 

 ANGELI, Peter, professor of belles lettres at Pisa, in 

 the sixteenth century, was born in Tuscany, in 1517 ; 

 died 1596. He published various works, but chiefly 

 distinguished himself as a Latin poet. His Syrias, a 

 Latin poem in 12 books, is on the same subject as 

 Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. 



ANGELO BUONAROTTI, Michael ; of the ancient family 

 of the counts of Canosa; born, 1474, at Caprese or 

 Chiusi ; one of the most distinguished names in the 

 history of modern art, eminent alike in painting, 



sculpture, and architecture, and, withal, no mean poet. 

 He was also an expert fencer. A. was one of those 

 favourites of nature, who combine in their single per- 

 sons the excellences of many highly-gifted men. 

 Domenico Ghirlandaio was his first master in the art 

 of drawing. Before he had been with him two years, 

 in the academy of arts established by Lorenzo de' 

 Medici, he studied statuary under Bertoldo, and, in 

 his 16th year, copied the head of a satyr in marble, 

 to the admiration of all connoisseurs. He attracted no 

 less attention as a painter, and received the honoura- 

 ble commission (together with the great Leonardo da 

 Vinci) of decorating the senate-hall at Florence with 

 historical designs. For this purpose , he sketched that 

 renowned, though not completely preserved cartoon, 

 which represents a scene from the Pisan war, and is 

 praised by critics as one of his most perfect creations. 

 Meanwhile, pope Julius II. had invited him to Rome, 

 and entrusted him with the charge of erecting his 

 sepulchral monument. Twice this labour was inter- 

 rupted once by the offended pride of A., and then 

 by the envy of contemporary artists. Bramante and 

 Juliano da San Gallo, in particular, persuaded the 

 pope to have the dome of the Sistine chapel painted 

 by Michael A. Knowing that he had not yet at- 

 tempted any thing in fresco, they hoped that the 

 imperfect execution of this task would alienate the 

 favour of the pope from him. A. declined the com- 

 mission, but the pope would not be refused, 1 and, in 

 the short space of 20 months, the artist finished the 

 work, which was admired by all connoisseurs, and 

 of which Fernow says rightly, that it displays, per- 

 haps, more than any other of his productions, all the 

 sublimity of his original genius. The caj>pdla Sis- 

 tina is certainly the grandest ensemble of art. Its 

 perfection is owing chiefly to Michael Angelo's di- 

 vine paintings. (See Sistine Chapel.) A. was about 

 to proceed with the monument of Julius, when this 

 pope died. His successor, Leo, sent A. to Florence 

 to erect the front of the Laurentian library. Leo, 

 however, shortly after died, and his successor, Adrian 

 VI., employed A. to make the statues for the monu- 

 ment of Julius ; particularly the renowned statue of 

 Moses, and the Christ, which was afterwards placed 

 at Rome, in the church della Minerva. Clement 

 VII., who next ascended the pontifical chair, recalled 

 A. to Rome, and charged him with the finishing of 

 the new sacristy and the Laurentian library at Flor- 

 ence. In the first, the monuments of the Medici are 

 by him ; e. g., the figures of Day and Night. Tu- 

 multuous times followed, after the lapse of which, he 

 was employed to paint the Last Judgment in the 

 Sistine chapel. The artist, now 60 years old, un- 

 willingly commenced a work which might endanger 

 his fame. Naturally inclined to deep and earnest 

 thought ; preferring the sublime conceptions of 

 Dante to all other poetry ; having, by a constant 

 study of anatomy, investigated the most secret me- 

 chanism of the muscles, and conscious of his own 

 power, he endeavoured, in this work, to strike out 

 a new path, and to surpass his predecessors, particu- 

 larly Luca Signeretti, by a display of terrible power. 

 The picture is grand, nay, gigantic, like the mind 

 which created it. It represents Christ in the act of 

 judging, or, rather, at the moment of condemning. 

 Martyrs are seen, who show to the Judge of the liv- 

 ing and dead the instruments of their torture ; souls 

 ascend to the choirs of angels hovering above ; the 

 condemned strive to break loose from the grasp of 

 the devils ; there the evil spirits burst into shouts of 

 triumph at the sight of their prey ; the lost, who are 

 dragged down, endeavour to cling to the good, who 

 remain in Christ's kingdom ; the gulf of eternal dam- 

 nation is seen opening; Jesus Christ and his mother 

 are seen surrounded by the apostles, who place a 



