There is a Biblical basis for the depictions of angels with wings. There are both canonical and apocryphal texts which provide us with descriptions of angels, sometimes as human-like beings with a pair of wings which carry them between heaven and earth, other times as uncanny creatures with many pairs of wings who encircle God and act as intermediaries between God and the human onlooker. These latter verses in particular emphasize the significance of wings to certain conceptions of the angelic form through the number of wings each angel has.
Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
Isaiah 6:2 NRSV
Their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.
Ezekiel 1:11 NRSV
The existence of these sources contributed to the use and popularity of the angelic imagery that developed from the Greco-Roman iconography: while these images had their origins in pagan art, they readily took on significance from pre-existing Christian thought. The passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel describe the role the angels' wings have in shielding both their bodies and the body of God, whom they surround, from sight, symbolizing the inscrutability of divine will. Additionally, the many wings represent divine flight, demonstrating the angels' capacity to move far beyond the spiritual limitations humans face. These connotations were then applied to the borrowed bird-winged Greco-Roman images to give them new theological meaning specific to Christianity.
Wings were also symbols of God's unapproachability... and Chrysostom makes it clear that Christians viewed and discussed wings as symbols of the angel's transcendental nature. These texts reveal that Christians were able to provide their own meanings to angels' wings, and they must have encouraged the manipulation of the iconography of pagan winged beings and made such iconography acceptable in Christian contexts.
Peers, 35-36
The version of angelic form borne from pagan iconography, which has pervaded Christian art since the 4th century, is relatively tame compared to other visual representations of angels. The only unnatural aspect of the wings of these angels are their existence in conjunction with a human body, but the wings themselves are completely natural, identical to those of a bird. Natural bird wings are illuminating signifiers of divine essence even though they are material and base while angels are of metaphysical substance. Pseudo-Dionysius wrote a defense of depiction of angels and divine beings in terms of lesser corporeal forms in response to the concerns that to do so would be to disrespect God. The concern was that divinity should not be portrayed in animal form because God is so much higher than the animals God gave humans dominion over. However, Pseudo-Dionysius argued, because God created every natural being, every natural being reflects the essence of God, and therefore to represent God through natural means is to use the reflection of divinity in nature to comprehend true divinity, as God intended. To assign the base image of bird wings to angels is not to say that angels are literally birdlike; instead, it expresses a metaphorical likeness between the divine natures of angels and the reflection of divinity in the function of bird wings.
It is therefore lawful to portray Celestial Beings in forms drawn from even the lowest of material things which are not discordant since they, too, having originated from That which is truly beautiful, have throughout the whole of their bodily constitution some vestiges of Intellectual Beauty, and through these we may be led to immaterial Archetypes; the similitudes being taken, as has been said, dissimilarly, and the same things being defined, not in the same way, but harmoniously and fittingly, in the case both of intellectual and sensible natures.
Pseudo-Dionysius, 154-155
So, what divine qualities are reflected in the natural-ness of bird wings?
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them...
Gen 1:20-22 NRSV
Birds are creatures of the sky rather than the earth, and were fashioned and blessed by God on the fifth day of Creation according to the first book of Genesis along with the creatures of the sea. Humans and the rest of the creatures consigned to a life on the ground were created the day after: although they are of the same physicality, they are denizens of different earthy spheres, and only birds can travel between the two. Bird wings represent the ability to travel between the earthly plane and a higher spiritual plane of existence: just as a bird's wings allow it to traverse the skies, unimpeded by gravity, it is the nature of angels to move between human and God, unimpeded by physicality. Wings embody the angelic role of messenger in the way nothing else can. It is fundamentally impossible to literally depict the un-embodied state of spiritual beings, but if an artist represents an angel as a human with bird wings, they are able to easily visually convey the idea that angels exist on a intrinsically different, higher level than humans. At the same time, it seems to suggest that angels exist to better humans and are not higher in God's favor, just as birds are not higher than man despite their command of the sky.
Wings are an essential aspect of angel as messenger without being a part of an angel's true, immaterial form. Wings also enable the angel to descend, to lower himself in order to interact with man.
Martin, 18
The lightness of the wings shows that they are altogether heavenly and unsullied and untrammelled in their upliftment on high,” that is, wings are a means of representing the ephemeral, immaterial nature of angels even when the form they assume for human eyes is bodily.
Pseudo-Dionysius, 194
Wings simultaneously represent the heavens and a tie to earth, for even birds, winged creatures, most eventually return to earth. Wings are the link that connects angels with the heavens, but wings also tie angels to animals; they serve to remind the viewer that angels are creatures beneath humanity despite belonging to the heavens.
Martin, 21
Whether or not later artists were consciously aware of these theological arguments, the connotations of bird wings have remained to some extent into contemporary times, and the image of an angel as a man with natural bird wings (often emphasized by their bright, saturated colors) remains one of, if not the most pervasive visuals in Christian art regarding the depiction of angels. The vivid color of angel wings in art can be almost as crucial to their depiction as the structure is, although the colors only exist to highlight the importance of the natural wings themselves as expressions of a metaphorical proximity to God.
Brillance, not wings, is thus the key identifying characteristic of angels in their earliest complete descriptions from both canonical and non-canonical sources.
Martin, 15
God is the embodiment of Love and Light on the highest level, and in art, vibrant colors are natural vessels of God's divine brilliance and beauty. While the rainbowed wings of the angels adorning church ceilings and illuminating religious texts may be exaggerations of reality, they are not unfounded: the natural coloration and plumage of bird wings can be as stunning as the most vivid color in an artist's paint set. Nature is a reflection of divinity, after all, and the colors of the natural world are evidence of this. The bright colors that often accompany bird wings in Christian art of angels is a complementary use of the physical world's natural beauty to display and revel in the divine.
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- Holy Bible: NRSV, New Revised Standard Version. National Council of the Churches of Christ, 1989.
-Martin, T. (2001). "The Development of Winged Angels in Early Christian Art.” Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia Del Arte, no. 14.
doi:10.5944/etfvii.14.2001.2373.
- Peers, G. (2001). Subtle bodies: Representing Angels in Byzantium. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. University of California Press.
- Pseudo-Dionysius. (n.d.). Celestial Hierarchy. https://ccel.org/ccel/dionysius/celestial/celestial
-Martin, T. (2001). "The Development of Winged Angels in Early Christian Art.” Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia Del Arte, no. 14.
doi:10.5944/etfvii.14.2001.2373.
- Peers, G. (2001). Subtle bodies: Representing Angels in Byzantium. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. University of California Press.
- Pseudo-Dionysius. (n.d.). Celestial Hierarchy. https://ccel.org/ccel/dionysius/celestial/celestial