Le génie du mal
Encyclopedia
Le génie du mal or The Genius of Evil, known informally in English as Lucifer
or The Lucifer of Liège, is a religious sculpture executed in white marble by the Belgian
artist Guillaume Geefs
. Francophone
art historians most often refer to the figure as an ange déchu, a "fallen angel
." It is located within the elaborate pulpit
(French chaire de vérité, "seat of truth") of St. Paul's Cathedral, Liège, and depicts a classically
beautiful
man in his physical prime, chained, seated, and nearly nude but for drapery gathered over his thighs, his full length ensconced within a mandorla of bat wings. Geefs' work replaces an earlier sculpture created for the space by his younger brother Joseph Geefs
, which was removed from the cathedral
because of its distracting allure and "unhealthy beauty."
In the late 1980s, a photograph of Le génie du mal became a focal point of Himmelsweg, an art installation
by the Liège-born artist Jacques Charlier on the theme of seductive evil and the danger of obscuring the memory of the Holocaust
.
Le génie du mal is set within an open niche
formed at the base of twin ornate staircases carved with gothic
floral motifs. The curved railing of the semi-spiral stairs reiterates the arc of the wings, which are retracted and cup the body. The versions by Guillaume and Joseph are strikingly similar at first glance and appear inspired by the same human model
. For each, the fallen angel sits on a rock, sheltered by his folded wings; his upper torso
, arms, and legs are nude, his center-parted hair nape
-length. The veined, membranous wings are articulated like a bat's, with a prominent thumb claw; the knobby, sinewy olecranon
combines bat and human anatomy
to create an illusion of realism
. A broken sceptre
and stripped-off crown
are held at the right hip. The white-marble sculpture
s occupy approximately the same dimension
s, delimited by the space; Guillaume's measures 165 by 77 by 65 cm, or nearly five-and-a-half feet in height, with Joseph's only slightly larger at 168.5 by 86 by 65.5 cm.
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In 1837, Guillaume Geefs was put in charge of designing the elaborate pulpit for St. Paul's, the theme of which was "The Triumph of Religion over the Genius of Evil." Geefs had come to prominence creating monument
al and public sculptures
in honor of political figures, expressing and capitalizing on the nationalist
spirit that followed Belgian independence in 1830
. Techniques of realism
coupled with Neoclassical
restraint discipline any tendency toward Romantic heroism
in these works, but Romanticism was to express itself more strongly in the Lucifer project.
From the outset, sculpture was an integral part of Geefs' pulpit design, which featured representations of the saints Peter
, Paul, Hubert
the first Bishop of Liège, and Lambert of Maastricht. A drawing of the pulpit by the Belgian illustrator Médard Tytgat
, published in 1900, shows the front; Le génie du mal would be located at the base of the stairs on the opposite side, but the book in which the illustration appears omits mention of the work.
The statue was originally a commission for Geefs' younger brother Joseph, who completed it in 1842 and installed it the following year. It generated controversy at once and was criticized for not representing a Christian
ideal. The cathedral administration declared that "this devil is too sublime." The local press intimated that the work was distracting the "pretty penitent girls" who should have been listening to the sermons.
Bishop van Bommel
soon ordered the removal of L'ange du mal, and the building committee passed the commission for the pulpit sculpture to Guillaume Geefs, whose version was installed at the cathedral permanently in 1848.
Joseph exhibited his sculpture at Antwerp in 1843, along with four other works: a sculpture group called The Dream, and the individual statues St. Philomena
, Faithful Love, and The Fisherman's Orphan. Known both as L'ange du mal (Angel of Evil) and Le génie du mal, the controversial piece was later received into the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
, where it has remained as of 2009.
Despite or because of the controversy, Joseph's work was admired at the highest levels of society. Charles Frederick
, Grand Duke
of Saxe-Weimar
, ordered a marble replica as early as 1842. The deracinated original was purchased for 3,000 florins by William II, King of the Netherlands
, and was dispersed with the rest of his collection in 1850 following his death. In 1854, the artist sold a plaster cast
of the statue to Baron Bernard August von Lindenau
, the German statesman, astronomer, and art collector for whom the Lindenau-Museum Altenburg is named. The success of the work elevated Joseph Geefs to the top tier of sculptors in his day.
L'ange du mal is among six statues featured in a painting by Pierre Langlet, The Sculpture Hall of the Brussels Museum (Salle de sculpture du Musée de Bruxelles, 1882), along with Love and Malice by another of the six Geefs sculptor-brothers, Jean.
L'ange du mal was not uniformly admired even as a work of art. When it appeared in an 1862 international exhibition, the reviewer criticized Geefs' work as "gentle and languid" and lacking in "muscle", "a devil sick... : the sting of Satan is taken out."
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Other than the vespertilionid
wings, the fallen angel of Joseph Geefs takes a completely human form, made manifest by its artistic near-nudity. A languid scarf skims the groin, the hips are bared, and the open thighs form an avenue that leads to shadow. The serpentine curve of waist and hip is given compositional play in relation to the wing-arcs. The torso is fit but youthful; smooth and graceful, almost androgynous. The angel's expression has been described as "serious, somber, even fierce," and the cast-down gaze directs the viewer's eye along the body and thighs to the parted knees. The most obvious satanic element in addition to the wings is the snake
uncoiling across the base of the rock. L'ange du mal has been called "one of the most disturbing works of its time."
Joseph's sculptures are "striking for their perfect finish and grace, their elegant and even poetic line," but while exhibiting these qualities in abundance, L'ange du mal is exceptional within the artist's body of work for its subject matter:
As a sort of "winged Adonis
," the fallen angel can be seen as developing from Geefs' early nude Adonis allant à la chasse avec son chien (Adonis Goes Hunting with His Hound). The composition of L'ange du mal has been compared to that of Jean-Jacques Feuchère
's small bronze Satan (1833), with Geefs' angel notably "less diabolic." The humanizing of Lucifer through nudity is characteristic also of the Italian sculptor Costantino Corti
's colossal work, executed a few years after the Geefs' versions. Corti depicts his Lucifer as frontally nude, though shielded discreetly by the pinnacle of rock he straddles, and framed with the feathered wings of his angel origin.
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Without a statement from the artist, it can only be surmised that Guillaume Geefs sought to address specific criticisms leveled at his brother Joseph's work. Guillaume's génie shows less flesh, and is marked more strongly by satanic iconography
as neither human nor angelic. Whether Guillaume succeeded in removing the "seductive" elements may be a matter of individual perception; at any rate, his version is featured on the website "Liège sensuel," a small online exhibition of nude sculptures and paintings from Liège selected for their sensual qualities.
_viatour.jpg)
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Guillaume shifts the direction of the fallen angel's gaze so that it leads away from the body, and his Lucifer's knees are drawn together protectively. The drapery hangs from behind the right shoulder, pools on the right side, and undulates thickly over the thighs, concealing the hips, not quite covering the navel. At the same time, the flesh that remains exposed is resolutely modeled, particularly in the upper arms, pectorals, and calves, to reveal a more defined, muscled masculinity. The uplifted right arm allows the artist to explore the patterned tensions of the serratus anterior muscle
s, and the gesture and the angle of the head suggest that the génie is warding off "divine chastisement."
", an apple
with bite marks, along with the broken-off tip of the sceptre, the stellar finial
of which marks Lucifer as the Morning Star of classical tradition. The nails
are narrow and elongated, like talons.
A pair of horns may be intended to further dehumanize the figure, while introducing another note of ambiguity
. Horns are animalistic markers of the satanic or demonic, but in a parallel tradition of religious iconography, "horns" represent points of light. Gods from antiquity who personify celestial phenomena such as the Sun or stars are crowned with rays, and some depictions of Moses
, the most famous being that of Michelangelo
, are carved with "horns" similar to those of Geefs' Lucifer; see Horned Moses.
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But the most apparent departure from L'ange du mal is the placing of Lucifer in bondage, with his right ankle and left wrist chained. In 19th-century reinterpretations of ancient Greek
and Christian myths
, Lucifer was often cast as a Promethean
figure, drawing on a tradition that the fallen angel was chained in Hell
just as the Titan
had been chained and tortured on the rock by Zeus
: "The same Prometheus
who is taken as an analogue
of the crucified Christ
is regarded also as a type of Lucifer," wrote Harold Bloom
in remarks on Mary Shelley
's 19th-century classic Frankenstein
, subtitled The Modern Prometheus. In A.H. Krappe
's folkloric
typology, Lucifer conforms to a type that includes Prometheus and the Germanic Loki
.
Guillaume Geefs' addition of fetters, with the swagged chain replacing the sneering serpent in Joseph's version, displays the angel's defeat in pious adherence to Christian ideology. At the same time, the titanic struggle of the tortured genius to free himself from metaphor
ical chains was a motif of Romanticism, which took hold in Belgium in the wake of the Revolution of 1830
. The Belgians had just secured their own "liberation"; over the ensuing two decades, there had been a craze for public sculpture, by the Geefs brothers and others, that celebrated the leaders of independence. The magnificently human figure of the iconic rebel who failed might have been expected to elicit a complex or ambivalent response. The suffering face of the génie, stripped of the angry hauteur of L'ange du mal, has been read as expressing remorse and despair; a tear slips from the left eye.
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In a 1990 essay, Belgian art historian Jacques Van Lennep discussed how the conception of Le génie du mal was influenced by Alfred de Vigny
's long philosophical poem Éloa, ou La sœur des anges
("Eloa, or The Sister of Angels"), published in 1824, which explored the possibility of Lucifer's redemption through love. In this "lush and lyrical" narrative poem, Lucifer sets out to seduce the beautiful Eloa, an angel born from a tear shed by Christ
at the death of Lazarus
. The Satanic lover is "literally a handsome devil, physically dashing, intellectually agile, irresistibly charismatic in speech and manner": in short, a Romantic hero
. "Since you are so beautiful," the naïve Eloa says, "you are no doubt good."
Lucifer declares that "I am he whom one loves and does not know," and says he weeps for the powerless and grants them the occasional reprieve of delight or oblivion. Despite Eloa's attempt to reconcile him with God, Lucifer cannot set aside his destructive pride. In the end, Eloa's love condemns her to Hell with Lucifer, and his triumph over her only brings him sadness.
In 1986, the Belgian artist Jacques Charlier made Le génie du mal a focal point of his installation
Himmelsweg ("The Road to Paradise"). A framed photograph of the sculpture hangs over a slender pedestal table that is draped with a black cloth. A transparent case on the table contains three books: a Carmelite
study on the subject of Satan
, a scientific treatise on air
, and a memorial of the Belgian Jews
killed at Auschwitz. On the lower shelf of the table are shackles.
Charlier has described his use of Le génie du mal as "a Romantic image that speaks to us of seduction
, evil
, and the sin
of forgetting." The German title of the work refers to the Nazi euphemism or "cold joke" for the access ramp that led to the gas chambers: "The Road to Paradise leads to Hell; the Fall is so close to redemption."
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Le génie du mal sometimes appears on blog
s, Internet forum
s, and other website
s that are devoted to alternative religious practices such as Satanism
and Luciferianism
. A travel writer has observed that in the 21st century the sculpture
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
or The Lucifer of Liège, is a religious sculpture executed in white marble by the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
artist Guillaume Geefs
Guillaume Geefs
Guillaume Geefs , also Willem Geefs, was a Belgian sculptor. Although known primarily for his monumental works and public portraits of statesmen and nationalist figures, he also explored mythological subject matter, often with an erotic theme.-Life:Geefs was born at Antwerp, the eldest of six...
. Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
art historians most often refer to the figure as an ange déchu, a "fallen angel
Fallen angel
Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...
." It is located within the elaborate pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
(French chaire de vérité, "seat of truth") of St. Paul's Cathedral, Liège, and depicts a classically
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
beautiful
Physical attractiveness
Physical attractiveness refers to a person's physical traits which are perceived to be aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term often implies sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be distinct from the two; for example, humans may regard the young as attractive for various...
man in his physical prime, chained, seated, and nearly nude but for drapery gathered over his thighs, his full length ensconced within a mandorla of bat wings. Geefs' work replaces an earlier sculpture created for the space by his younger brother Joseph Geefs
Joseph Geefs
Joseph Germain or Jozef Geefs was a Belgian sculptor. His brothers Guillaume Geefs and Jean Geefs were also sculptors.-Life:...
, which was removed from the cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
because of its distracting allure and "unhealthy beauty."
In the late 1980s, a photograph of Le génie du mal became a focal point of Himmelsweg, an art installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
by the Liège-born artist Jacques Charlier on the theme of seductive evil and the danger of obscuring the memory of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Two spirits, one site
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
formed at the base of twin ornate staircases carved with gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
floral motifs. The curved railing of the semi-spiral stairs reiterates the arc of the wings, which are retracted and cup the body. The versions by Guillaume and Joseph are strikingly similar at first glance and appear inspired by the same human model
Model (art)
Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...
. For each, the fallen angel sits on a rock, sheltered by his folded wings; his upper torso
Torso
Trunk or torso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. The trunk includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
, arms, and legs are nude, his center-parted hair nape
Nape
The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is referred to by the word nucha, which also gives the adjective corresponding to "nape" in English, "nuchal"....
-length. The veined, membranous wings are articulated like a bat's, with a prominent thumb claw; the knobby, sinewy olecranon
Olecranon
The olecranon is a large, thick, curved bony eminence of the forearm that projects behind the elbow.It is situated at the upper end of the ulna, one of the two bones in the forearm...
combines bat and human anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
to create an illusion of realism
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
. A broken sceptre
Sceptre
A sceptre is a symbolic ornamental rod or wand borne in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia.-Antiquity:...
and stripped-off crown
Crown (headgear)
A crown is the traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally represents power, legitimacy, immortality, righteousness, victory, triumph, resurrection, honour and glory of life after death. In art, the crown may be shown being offered to...
are held at the right hip. The white-marble sculpture
Marble sculpture
Marble sculpture is the art of creating three-dimensional forms from marble. Sculpture is among the oldest of the arts. Even before painting cave walls, early humans fashioned shapes from stone. From these beginnings, artifacts have evolved to their current complexity...
s occupy approximately the same dimension
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
s, delimited by the space; Guillaume's measures 165 by 77 by 65 cm, or nearly five-and-a-half feet in height, with Joseph's only slightly larger at 168.5 by 86 by 65.5 cm.
The commission
Monument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
al and public sculptures
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
in honor of political figures, expressing and capitalizing on the nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
spirit that followed Belgian independence in 1830
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
. Techniques of realism
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
coupled with Neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
restraint discipline any tendency toward Romantic heroism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
in these works, but Romanticism was to express itself more strongly in the Lucifer project.
From the outset, sculpture was an integral part of Geefs' pulpit design, which featured representations of the saints Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, Paul, Hubert
Hubertus
Saint Hubertus or Hubert , called the "Apostle of the Ardennes" was the first Bishop of Liège...
the first Bishop of Liège, and Lambert of Maastricht. A drawing of the pulpit by the Belgian illustrator Médard Tytgat
Médard Tytgat
Médard Tytgat was a Belgian painter, lithographer, book illustrator and poster artist known for portraits, nudes, and landscapes. He was born in Bruges. From 1890 to 1894, he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts of Brussels with Jean-François Portaels. He died in Brussels.Tytgat was...
, published in 1900, shows the front; Le génie du mal would be located at the base of the stairs on the opposite side, but the book in which the illustration appears omits mention of the work.
The statue was originally a commission for Geefs' younger brother Joseph, who completed it in 1842 and installed it the following year. It generated controversy at once and was criticized for not representing a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
ideal. The cathedral administration declared that "this devil is too sublime." The local press intimated that the work was distracting the "pretty penitent girls" who should have been listening to the sermons.
Bishop van Bommel
Cornelius Richard Anton van Bommel
Cornelius Richard Anton van Bommel was a Dutch Bishop of Liège.He was educated at the college of Willingshegge near Münster, and later at the advanced school of Borght...
soon ordered the removal of L'ange du mal, and the building committee passed the commission for the pulpit sculpture to Guillaume Geefs, whose version was installed at the cathedral permanently in 1848.
Joseph exhibited his sculpture at Antwerp in 1843, along with four other works: a sculpture group called The Dream, and the individual statues St. Philomena
Philomena
Saint Philomena is venerated as a virgin martyr saint of the Catholic Church, said to have been a young Greek princess martyred in the 4th century. Her veneration began in the early 19th century after the archaeological discovery in the Catacombs of Priscilla of the bones of a young woman, which...
, Faithful Love, and The Fisherman's Orphan. Known both as L'ange du mal (Angel of Evil) and Le génie du mal, the controversial piece was later received into the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium , is one of the most famous museums in Belgium.-The museum:...
, where it has remained as of 2009.
Despite or because of the controversy, Joseph's work was admired at the highest levels of society. Charles Frederick
Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Charles Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was a Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.-Biography:Born in Weimar, he was the eldest son of Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Luise Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt.Charles Frederick succeeded his famous father as Grand Duke...
, Grand Duke
Grand duchy
A grand duchy, sometimes referred to as a grand dukedom, is a territory whose head of state is a monarch, either a grand duke or grand duchess.Today Luxembourg is the only remaining grand duchy...
of Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was created in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach. It was raised to a Grand duchy in 1815 by resolution of the Vienna Congress. In 1877, it officially changed its name to the Grand Duchy of Saxony , but this name was...
, ordered a marble replica as early as 1842. The deracinated original was purchased for 3,000 florins by William II, King of the Netherlands
William II of the Netherlands
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg from 7 October 1840 until his death in 1849.- Early life and education :...
, and was dispersed with the rest of his collection in 1850 following his death. In 1854, the artist sold a plaster cast
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
of the statue to Baron Bernard August von Lindenau
Bernhard von Lindenau
Baron Bernhard August von Lindenau was a German lawyer, astronomer, politician, and art collector.Lindenau was born in Altenburg, where he also died. In 1830 he was the Minister of the Interior during a turbulent period in the history of Saxony...
, the German statesman, astronomer, and art collector for whom the Lindenau-Museum Altenburg is named. The success of the work elevated Joseph Geefs to the top tier of sculptors in his day.
L'ange du mal is among six statues featured in a painting by Pierre Langlet, The Sculpture Hall of the Brussels Museum (Salle de sculpture du Musée de Bruxelles, 1882), along with Love and Malice by another of the six Geefs sculptor-brothers, Jean.
L'ange du mal was not uniformly admired even as a work of art. When it appeared in an 1862 international exhibition, the reviewer criticized Geefs' work as "gentle and languid" and lacking in "muscle", "a devil sick... : the sting of Satan is taken out."
'This devil is too sublime'
Vesper bat
Vesper bats , also known as Evening bats or Common bats, are the largest and best-known family of bats. They belong to the suborder Microchiroptera . There are over three hundred species distributed all over the world, on every continent except Antarctica...
wings, the fallen angel of Joseph Geefs takes a completely human form, made manifest by its artistic near-nudity. A languid scarf skims the groin, the hips are bared, and the open thighs form an avenue that leads to shadow. The serpentine curve of waist and hip is given compositional play in relation to the wing-arcs. The torso is fit but youthful; smooth and graceful, almost androgynous. The angel's expression has been described as "serious, somber, even fierce," and the cast-down gaze directs the viewer's eye along the body and thighs to the parted knees. The most obvious satanic element in addition to the wings is the snake
Serpent (symbolism)
Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...
uncoiling across the base of the rock. L'ange du mal has been called "one of the most disturbing works of its time."
Joseph's sculptures are "striking for their perfect finish and grace, their elegant and even poetic line," but while exhibiting these qualities in abundance, L'ange du mal is exceptional within the artist's body of work for its subject matter:
As a sort of "winged Adonis
Adonis
Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...
," the fallen angel can be seen as developing from Geefs' early nude Adonis allant à la chasse avec son chien (Adonis Goes Hunting with His Hound). The composition of L'ange du mal has been compared to that of Jean-Jacques Feuchère
Jean-Jacques Feuchère
Jean-Jacques Feuchère was a French sculptor.He was a student of Jean-Pierre Cortot, and among his students was Jacques-Léonard Maillet.-Selected works:* Relief panel Le Pont d'Arcole, Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1833-1834...
's small bronze Satan (1833), with Geefs' angel notably "less diabolic." The humanizing of Lucifer through nudity is characteristic also of the Italian sculptor Costantino Corti
Costantino Corti
Costantino Corti was a Milanese sculptor who exhibited at Brera and in Florence, London, and Paris. Corti was most noted for his colossal statue Lucifer...
's colossal work, executed a few years after the Geefs' versions. Corti depicts his Lucifer as frontally nude, though shielded discreetly by the pinnacle of rock he straddles, and framed with the feathered wings of his angel origin.
Chained genius
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
as neither human nor angelic. Whether Guillaume succeeded in removing the "seductive" elements may be a matter of individual perception; at any rate, his version is featured on the website "Liège sensuel," a small online exhibition of nude sculptures and paintings from Liège selected for their sensual qualities.
Serratus anterior muscle
The serratus anterior is a muscle that originates on the surface of the upper eight or nine ribs at the side of the chest and inserts along the entire anterior length of the medial border of the scapula.-Origin:...
s, and the gesture and the angle of the head suggest that the génie is warding off "divine chastisement."
Symbols of Lucifer
Guillaume added several details to enhance the Luciferian iconography and the theme of punishment: at the angel's feet, the dropped "forbidden fruitForbidden fruit
Forbidden fruit is any object of desire whose appeal is a direct result of knowledge that cannot or should not be obtained or something that someone may want but is forbidden to have....
", an apple
Apple (symbolism)
Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that as late as the 17th century, the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all fruit other than berries, but including nuts...
with bite marks, along with the broken-off tip of the sceptre, the stellar finial
Finial
The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
of which marks Lucifer as the Morning Star of classical tradition. The nails
Nail (anatomy)
A nail is a horn-like envelope covering the dorsal aspect of the terminal phalanges of fingers and toes in humans, most non-human primates, and a few other mammals. Nails are similar to claws, which are found on numerous other animals....
are narrow and elongated, like talons.
A pair of horns may be intended to further dehumanize the figure, while introducing another note of ambiguity
Ambiguity
Ambiguity of words or phrases is the ability to express more than one interpretation. It is distinct from vagueness, which is a statement about the lack of precision contained or available in the information.Context may play a role in resolving ambiguity...
. Horns are animalistic markers of the satanic or demonic, but in a parallel tradition of religious iconography, "horns" represent points of light. Gods from antiquity who personify celestial phenomena such as the Sun or stars are crowned with rays, and some depictions of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, the most famous being that of Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
, are carved with "horns" similar to those of Geefs' Lucifer; see Horned Moses.
Promethean Lucifer
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
and Christian myths
Christian mythology
Christian mythology is the body of myths associated with Christianity. In the study of mythology, the term "myth" refers to a traditional story, often one which is regarded as sacred and which explains how the world and its inhabitants came to have their present form.Classicist G.S. Kirk defines a...
, Lucifer was often cast as a Promethean
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
figure, drawing on a tradition that the fallen angel was chained in Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
just as the Titan
Titan (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....
had been chained and tortured on the rock by Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
: "The same Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
who is taken as an analogue
Analogue (literature)
The term analogue is used in literary history in two related senses:* a work which resembles another in terms of one or more motifs, characters, scenes, phrases or events....
of the crucified Christ
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
is regarded also as a type of Lucifer," wrote Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
in remarks on Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
's 19th-century classic Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
, subtitled The Modern Prometheus. In A.H. Krappe
Alexander Haggerty Krappe
Alexander Haggerty Krappe was a folklorist and author. Along with Francis Peabody Magoun, he was the first translator of folktales collected by the Brothers Grimm into the English language. A.H Krappe is described as a folklorist, linguist, teacher, translator of scientific and other materials, a...
's folkloric
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
typology, Lucifer conforms to a type that includes Prometheus and the Germanic Loki
Loki
In Norse mythology, Loki or Loke is a god or jötunn . Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Nari or Narfi...
.
Guillaume Geefs' addition of fetters, with the swagged chain replacing the sneering serpent in Joseph's version, displays the angel's defeat in pious adherence to Christian ideology. At the same time, the titanic struggle of the tortured genius to free himself from metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical chains was a motif of Romanticism, which took hold in Belgium in the wake of the Revolution of 1830
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
. The Belgians had just secured their own "liberation"; over the ensuing two decades, there had been a craze for public sculpture, by the Geefs brothers and others, that celebrated the leaders of independence. The magnificently human figure of the iconic rebel who failed might have been expected to elicit a complex or ambivalent response. The suffering face of the génie, stripped of the angry hauteur of L'ange du mal, has been read as expressing remorse and despair; a tear slips from the left eye.
Sister of angels
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor de Vigny was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life:Alfred de Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family...
's long philosophical poem Éloa, ou La sœur des anges
Éloa, ou La sœur des anges
Éloa, ou La sœur des anges , published in 1824 , is Alfred de Vigny's epic tripartite philosophic poem of Eloa, an innocent angel who falls in love with a stranger at odds with God. It is made clear that the stranger is Lucifer...
("Eloa, or The Sister of Angels"), published in 1824, which explored the possibility of Lucifer's redemption through love. In this "lush and lyrical" narrative poem, Lucifer sets out to seduce the beautiful Eloa, an angel born from a tear shed by Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
at the death of Lazarus
Lazarus of Bethany
Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death...
. The Satanic lover is "literally a handsome devil, physically dashing, intellectually agile, irresistibly charismatic in speech and manner": in short, a Romantic hero
Romantic hero
The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence. The Romantic hero is often the protagonist in the literary work and there is a primary focus...
. "Since you are so beautiful," the naïve Eloa says, "you are no doubt good."
Lucifer declares that "I am he whom one loves and does not know," and says he weeps for the powerless and grants them the occasional reprieve of delight or oblivion. Despite Eloa's attempt to reconcile him with God, Lucifer cannot set aside his destructive pride. In the end, Eloa's love condemns her to Hell with Lucifer, and his triumph over her only brings him sadness.
Himmelsweg
- A version of Himmelsweg by Jacques Charlier may be viewed online.
In 1986, the Belgian artist Jacques Charlier made Le génie du mal a focal point of his installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
Himmelsweg ("The Road to Paradise"). A framed photograph of the sculpture hangs over a slender pedestal table that is draped with a black cloth. A transparent case on the table contains three books: a Carmelite
Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
study on the subject of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, a scientific treatise on air
Earth's atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
, and a memorial of the Belgian Jews
History of the Jews in Belgium
Jews and Judaism have a long history in Belgium, from the 1st century CE until today. The Jewish community numbered 100,000 on the eve of the Second World War, but after the war and the Holocaust, is now less than half that number.-Early history:...
killed at Auschwitz. On the lower shelf of the table are shackles.
Charlier has described his use of Le génie du mal as "a Romantic image that speaks to us of seduction
Seduction
In social science, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "to lead astray". As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation...
, evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, and the sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
of forgetting." The German title of the work refers to the Nazi euphemism or "cold joke" for the access ramp that led to the gas chambers: "The Road to Paradise leads to Hell; the Fall is so close to redemption."
Alternative religious veneration
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, Internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s, and other website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s that are devoted to alternative religious practices such as Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
and Luciferianism
Luciferianism
Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer, originally a name referring to the planet Venus when it rises ahead of the Sun....
. A travel writer has observed that in the 21st century the sculpture
Selected bibliography
- Soo Yang Geuzaine et Alexia Creusen, "Guillaume Geefs: Le Génie du Mal (1848) à la cathédrale Saint-Paul de Liège," Vers la modernité. Le XIXe siècle au Pays de Liège, exhibition presented by the University of Liège, 5 October 2001 to 20 January 2002 online catalogue.
- Michael Palmer et al., 500 chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art belge du XVe siècle à nos jours (Éditions Racine, n.d.), p. 203 online.
- Edmond Marchal, "Étude sur la vie et les œuvres de Joseph-Charles Geefs," Annuaire de l'Académie Royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique (Brussels, 1888).
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts of BelgiumRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of BelgiumThe Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium , is one of the most famous museums in Belgium.-The museum:...
, Le génie du mal by Joseph Geefs, Fabritius online catalogue.
External links to images
- Guillaume Geefs' Le génie du mal may be viewed online in its architectural context; also angle showing the stained glass
- Joseph Geefs, L'ange du mal (as Le génie du mal) full view; hands detail; side view
- Himmelsweg installation of Jacques Charlier, Nadja Vilenne galerie (scroll down) and zoomed image.