The Angelic Guards

1808

Not on view

Four angelic beings, reminiscent of similar figures by Michelangelo and Raphael, protect the heavenly realm of Elysium from Tartarus: the dark, ill-defined abyssal zone at right. The largest figure guards a key, while others lean over the edge with spears as a cloaked Gabriel broods with a flaming cross on his forehead. At upper right we are shown historical patrons of the arts—Charles I, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Cassiodorus, Francis I, and Agrippa—and above them artists who benefited from enlightened support, including Joshua Reynolds, Giles Hussey, Annibale Carracci, and Domenichino. The etching reproduces central figures in Barry’s enormous painting Elysium and Tartarus (1777–83; Society of Arts, London) and was created as a pendant to Divine Justice (see 2016.595).

Artwork Details

Title: The Angelic Guards
Artist: James Barry (Irish, Cork 1741–1806 London)
Date: 1808
Medium: Etching and engraving; fourth state of four
Dimensions: Plate: 29 1/8 × 19 11/16 in. (74 × 50 cm)
Sheet: 30 7/16 × 20 3/8 in. (77.3 × 51.8 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 2016
Object Number: 2016.596
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By James Barry

In the same medium

Satan, Sin, and Death: "Death and Sin met by Satan on his Return from Earth", James Barry Irish, Graphite, brush and brown ink, gray and brown wash heightened with touches of white — Satan, Sin, and Death: "Death and Sin met by Satan on his Return from Earth"
James Barry
Subject Relates to John Milton
1792–95

Scrapbook of Drawings and Prints, Gideon Saint British, Pen and ink, engraving and etching — Scrapbook of Drawings and Prints
Gideon Saint
ca. 1760

Orpheus Instructing a Savage People in Theology and the Arts of Social Life, James Barry Irish, Etching and engraving; second state of three — Orpheus Instructing a Savage People in Theology and the Arts of Social Life
James Barry
plate dated May 1, 1791, issued 1792

The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons), Giovanni Battista Piranesi Italian, Etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing; first state of four (Robison) — The Round Tower, from "Carceri d'invenzione" (Imaginary Prisons)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Publisher Giovanni Bouchard
ca. 1749–50

Job Reproved by His Friends, James Barry Irish, Etching over traces of aquatint; third state of five — Job Reproved by His Friends
James Barry
dated 1777; issued ca. 1790

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