of Scripture, the demon wished to enter and to possess the form of Moses, in order to deceive the Jews by personating their leader; but others say, that Michael contended for the body, that he might bury it in an unknown place, lest the Jews should fall into the sin of paying divine honours to their legislator. This is a fine picturesque subject: the rocky desert, the body of Moses dead on the earth, the contest of the good and evil angel confronting each other, these are grand materials! It must have been rarely treated, for I remember but one instance the fresco by L. Signorelli, in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. - It is Michael who intercepts Balaam' when on his way to curse the people of Israel, and puts blessings into his mouth instead of curses: a subject often treated, but as a fact rather than a vision. It is Michael who stands before Joshua in the plain by Jericho :-"And Joshua said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy." (Joshua, v. 13–15.) This subject is very uncommon. In the Greek MS. already alluded to, I met with a magnificent example — magnificent in point of sentiment, though half-ruined and effaced; the God-like bearing of the armed angel, looking down on the prostrate Joshua, is here as fine as possible. It is Michael who appears to Gideon. It is Michael who chastises David. It is Michael who exterminates the army of Sennacherib; a subject magnificently painted by Rubens. (Some suppose that on this occasion God made use of the ministry of an evil angel.1) It is Michael who descends to deliver the Three Children from the burning fiery furnace. The Three Children in the furnace is a subject which appears very early in the catacombs and on the sarcophagi as a symbol of the redemption;-so early, that it is described by Tertullian; but in almost all the examples given there are three figures 'Didron. Manuel Grec. p. 101. 3 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. De Oratione, cap. xii. 2 Judges, vi. 11. • Calmet. only where there is a fourth, it is, of course, the protecting angel, but he is without wings.' Michael seizes the prophet Habakkuk by the hair of the head, and carries him to Babylon to the den of lions, that he may feed Daniel.2 This apocryphal subject occurs on several sarcophagi.3 I have seen it also in illuminated MSS., but cannot at this moment refer to it. It occurs in a series of late Flemish prints after Hemskirk, of which there are good impressions in the British Museum. The Archangel Michael is not named in the Gospels; but in the legends of the Madonna, as we shall see hereafter, he plays a very important part, being deputed by Christ to announce to his mother her approaching end, and to receive her soul. For the present I will only remark, that when, in accordance with this very ancient legend, an angel is represented kneeling before the Madonna, and holding in his hand a palm surmounted by stars, or a lighted taper, this angel is not Gabriel, announcing the conception of Christ, as is usually supposed, but Michael, as the angel of death.* The legend of Monte Galgano I saw in a large fresco, in the Santa Croce at Florence, by a painter of the Giotto school; but in so bad a state, that I could only make out a bull on the top of a mountain, and a man shooting with a bow and arrow. On the opposite wall is the combat of Michael with the dragon-very spirited, and in much better preservation. To distinguish the apparition of St. Michael on Monte Galgano, from the apparition on Mont St. Michel, in both of which a bull and a bishop are principal figures, it is necessary to observe, that, in the last-named subject, the sea is always introduced at the base of the picture, and that the former is most common in Italian, and the latter in French, works of art. In the French stained glass of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, St. Michael is a very popular subject, either with the dragon, or the scales, or both. Lately, in removing the white-wash from the east wall of the nave of 1 Bottari, Tab. xxii. On the early Christian sarcophagi, as I have already observed, there are no winged angels. In the oft-repeated subject of the "Three Children in the burning fiery furnace," the fourth figure, when introduced, may represent a son of God, — i. e. an angel; or the Son of God, i.e. Christ, as it has been interpreted in both senses. 2 Bel and the Dragon, 26. 3 Bottari, 15. 49. 84. See Legends of the Madonna. Preston Church, near Brighton, was discovered the outline of a group of figures, representing St. Michael, fully draped, and with large wings, bearing the balance; in each scale a human soul. The scale containing the beato is assisted by a figure fully draped, but so ruined that it is not possible to say whether it represents the Virgin, or the guardian saint of the person who caused the fresco to be painted. I am told that in the old churches of Cornwall, and of the towns on the south coast, which had frequent intercourse with France, effigies of St. Michael occur frequently, both in painting and sculpture. On the old English coin, thence called an angel, we have the figure of St. Michael, who was one of the patron saints of our Norman kings. I must now trust to the reader to contemplate the figures of St. Michael, so frequent and so varied in Art, with reference to these suggestions; and leaving for the present this radiant Spirit, this bright similitude of a primal and universal faith, we turn to his angelic companions. 41 Egyptian hieroglyphic of the Genius of Good overcoming Evil. (v. p. 108) ST. GABRIEL. Lat. Sanctus Gabriel. Ital. San Gabriello, San Gabriele, L'Angelo Annunziatore. Fr. St. Gabriel. "I am GABRIEL, that stand in the presence of God.”—Luke, i. 19. IN those passages of Scripture where the Angel Gabriel is mentioned by name, he is brought before us in the character of a Messenger only, and always on important occasions. In the Old Testament he is sent to Daniel to announce the return of the Jews from captivity, and to explain the vision which prefigures the destinies of mighty empires. His contest with the Angel of the kingdom of Persia, when St. Michael comes to his assistance, would be a splendid subject in fit hands; I do not know that it has ever been painted. In the New Testament the mission of Gabriel is yet more sublime: he first appears to the high priest Zacharias, and foretells the birth of John the Baptist,—a subject which belongs especially to the life of that saint. Six months later, Gabriel is sent to announce the appearance of the Redeemer of mankind.1 In the Jewish tradition, Gabriel is the guardian of the celestial treasury. Hence, I presume, Milton has made him chief guardian of Paradise: "Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat, As the Angel who announced the birth of Christ, he has been venerated as the Angel who presides over child-birth. He foretells the birth of Samson, and, in the apocryphal legends, he foretells to Joachim the birth of the Virgin. In the East, he is of great importance. Mahomet selected him as his immediate teacher and inspirer, and he became the great protecting angel of Islamism: hence between Michael, the protector of the Jews and Christians, and Gabriel, the protector of "The stone on which stood the angel Gabriel when he announced to the most Blessed Virgin the great mystery of the Incarnation," is among the relics enumerated as existing in the church of the Santa Croce at Rome. the Moslem, there is supposed to exist no friendly feeling,-rather the reverse. In the New Testament, Gabriel is a much more important personage than Michael; yet I have never met with any picture in which he figures singly as an object of worship. In devotional pictures he figures as the second of the three Archangels-" Secondo fra i primi,” as Tasso styles him; or in his peculiar character as the divine messenger of grace," l'Angelo annunziatore." He then usually bears in one hand a lily or a sceptre; in the other a scroll on which is inscribed," Ave MARIA, GRATIA PLENA!"1 The subject called the ANNUNCIATION is one of the most frequent and most important, as it is one of the most beautiful, in the whole range of Christian Art. It belongs, however, to the history of the Virgin, where I shall have occasion to treat it at length; yet as the Angel Gabriel here assumes, by direct scriptural testimony, a distinct name and personality, and as the dignity and significance proper to a subject so often unworthily and perversely treated depend very much on the character and deportment given to the celestial messenger, I shall make a few observations in this place with respect to the treatment of the angel, only reserving the theme in its general bearing for future consideration. In the early representations of the Annunciation it is treated as a religious mystery, and with a solemn simplicity and purity of feeling, which is very striking and graceful in itself, as well as in harmony with the peculiar manner of the divine revelation. The scene is generally a porch or portico of a temple-like building; the Virgin stands (she is very seldom seated, and then on a kind of raised throne); the angel stands before her, at some distance: very often, she is within the portico; he is without. Gabriel is a majestic being, generally robed in white, wearing the tunic and pallium à l'antique, his flowing hair bound by a jewelled tiara, with large many-coloured wings, and bearing the sceptre of sovereignty in the left hand, while the right is extended in 2 In Paradise he sings for ever the famous salutation: - “Cantando Ave Maria gratia plena Dinanzi a lei le sue ali distese." DANTE, Par. 32, |