Angels, fly

F. X. Messerschmidt, A Hypocrite and Slanderer, c. 1770-83,
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Angels, fly

Extremity, the Baroque is dramatic.

The character heads, a grimace, madness and like Leonardo an anatomy. F. X. Messerschmidt describes caricature, a science of human psychology and emotional expression. Angels wings tangled, feathers flying and the human spirit soaring in directions of uncontrollable emotion. The Holy Spirit feels dampened but as complicated as a storm and the wind. Human emotions soared higher than the birds and are tossed around to the nonexistence of the psyche, the metaphysics in the knowing.

Leonardo da Vinci, The skull sectioned, 1489, 
Royal Collection Trust

Maddening, madness and the psychology of an unknown quality, when, you think of what is behind the extremity of a situation you are ballooned to proportions. Ballooning and taken elsewhere, the monster of the psyche forms the expression needed. Needing, are we for the historic information. But, facts are twisted along with the emotions and social commentary to the point of darkness. Psychosis takes us back to the "momento mori" of the day and almost to a refined version of a conservative time in history. We are almost the "still life" or a refection on the essence of what is behind death, what precedes madness, darkness and death is the metaphysics.

Leonardo da Vinci, The bones and muscles of a bird's wing, c. 1512-13,

Royal Collection Trust

If we then reflect on the death of Christ before the tomb we may get to the veiling of Christ and its significance. We travel with the birds and then, are taken to the Holy Spirit. The spirit of Christ ascended during the time of the Crucifixion and became the star but the Holy Spirit is amongst us. God looks at us from afar. Tangled is the emotion of love and death and the love of Christ, we are veiled, ascended and taken to a church to rise with voices of angels.

The cloth of the veiled Christ bares the image of Christ.

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Feathers, feathers ascending.

Angels, fly.

By

Nicole Page-Smith

Museo Cappella Sansevero