Standing side by side with angels

Jaspreet Singh Boparai

Jaspreet Singh Boparai writes occasionally on art history, Latin culture and Punjabi culture FRA’ ANGELICO (1395–1455) PAINTEDthe Annunciation more than once. When we imagine the archangel Gabriel, and his announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and bear a son, our idea of how that scene should look has a lot to do with Fra’ Angelico’s powerfully lucid compositions. Yet the most supreme painter of angels is surely Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510). The ones he shows us in his Madonna of the Magnificat (1481) and Madonna of the Pomegranate (1487) in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence seem too beautiful to be human. St Thomas Aquinas once said that angels need bodies not for their own sake, but for ours. After all, they are “above” matter, and free from any…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2025

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