c. 1998 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ Americans _ some 75 percent according to a recent poll _ believe in angels. And now, thanks to the Vatican and the Chrysler Corp., they’ll be able to match their mental images of heavenly beings with the representations of some of the world’s most famous artists.

A collection of 100 angel artworks from the museums of the Vatican _ painted and sculpted, in silver and on tapestry _ began a 14-month, five-city tour here Feb. 4 at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The exhibit,”The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican,”will also travel to St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and West Palm Beach, Fla. It traces the visual image of the angel over a span of time beginning in the 9th century B.C. to the second half of the 20th century and includes works from such masters as Michaelangelo, Raphael, Roualt, and Salvador Dali.

The exhibit’s tour coincides with widespread public interest in the subject.”Belief in angels is a universal idea, a common belief in religious cultures, something believed by humans for centuries,”said Leonard Primiano, an assistant professor of religious studies at Cabrini College in suburban Philadelphia.”Angels have been a part of our national consciousness and our national folklore for decades. There are no religious or denominational rivalries in America where angels are concerned.” The popularity of the hit CBS-TV series”Touched by an Angel”has helped fuel interest in angels, along with non-religious best-selling books and tapes on angelic spirituality.”People feel cut off from careful guidance and a sense of someone’s watching over them,”Primiano told reporters at the exhibit this week.”Angels tap people’s deep feelings for a spiritual friend, for a spiritual guardian.” The artworks show off treasures housed in the Vatican’s 13 museums as well as the Holy See’s ability to restore damaged or neglected works.

The Rev. Allen Duston, a Dominican priest and the Vatican’s exhibition director, for example, stood before a large 17th-century oil painting,”The Resurrection”by the Italian artist Domenico Cresti, and pointed to the painting’s very dark bottom half. Over the centuries, it had became completely blackened.”The Vatican has its own restoration studios for all material,”Duston said.”The restorers took about four, five months to clean it. You can see that underneath it was in practically pristine condition _ especially the fire, the sparks jumping out of the flames.” In a letter from Pope John Paul II included in the exhibit catalogue, the pontiff writes,”Each one of us has a guardian angel, our silent and discreet counselor, whose intercession and watchful care bring us immeasurable assistance in facing the challenges of life.” The exhibit is a stroll through centuries of different images of angels.

Museum staffer Cynthia Burlingham said, for example, images of winged angels was an artistic concept that came only after the birth of Jesus.”At some point, an artist clearly decided to put wings on an angel, and it stuck,”she said.

According to museum and Vatican officials, the exhibit is less about cashing in on the popularity of angels, as it is to explain in a broader context why people like angels so much.”Saints are individual personalities with all of the flaws as well as all of the positive things,”Duston said.”But generally the ways angels are portrayed is amorphous, lovely beings that are all around and don’t bother us.”And they don’t challenge us,”he added.”Angels are popular in American culture because they’re not threatening. They’re not like God who gives you commandments to live by and calls you to judgment.” Wanting to show not only the positive side of angels, the exhibit also includes representations of dark angels, such as Lucifer, who is depicted in”Satan Before the Lord,”an 18th-century Book of Job-oriented Italian oil painting, as well as in”The Fall of the Angel,”a more modern, 1963 painting by Marino Marini.”America, particularly with its angel craze, tends to emphasize the positive,”Duston said.”But we should remember that fallen angels are also part of the tradition. … It is nicer, if you will, to show wonderful things that are light and airy and positive, but one only needs to look around or watch the news and see that there is an evil presence in the world as well.” Other artworks include the 19th-century Crosier of Saint Michael, a long pastoral staff like those traditionally used by bishops and popes made of precious metals and enamel. Noteworthy is this crosier’s gold curve with four child-like angels _ and a sword-wielding Saint Michael slaying a dragon.

DEA END FINNIGAN