Cherubim

CHERUBIM (Hebrew Plural Hērubhîm). - An invisible spirit and minister of God, executor of his wills, of which he further manifests the presence and the power, and with whose "glory" he stands in a particular relation. The name, without explanation in Hebrew, is derived from the Babylonian hāribh, he who prays, blesses, intercedes (v. BABYLONIANS). The c. first appear in Gen. 3:23-24, at the gate of the earthly Paradise, to prevent the first parents, with a flaming sword, from access to the tree of life (cf. Ezek. 28:14, 16). Their depiction was the only one permitted to the Hebrews.

Moses, by God's command, placed two of them in beaten gold facing each other upon the ark, at the two ends of the propitiatory, which they covered with outspread wings, symbolizing the invisible presence of Yahweh. From there, from the place "between the c.," God gave his oracles (Ex. 25:18-22; 37:7-9; Num. 7:89) and was therefore called "He who sits above the c." (I Sam. 4:4; II Sam. 6:2; Isa. 37:16; Ps. 80:2; 99:1). When he manifests himself in the storm "he rides upon the c." (Ps. 18:11). They were introduced into Solomon's temple: two, standing at the two ends of the ark, covered it with their lower wings, while the upper ones reached as far as to touch the opposite walls. They were ten cubits high, with wings five cubits long each, carved from olive wood and covered with gold (I Kings 6:23-28; II Chron. 3:10-13).

Other c. were woven upon the veil that concealed the Holy of Holies (II Chron. 3:14) and carved in low relief on the inner walls of the Temple, alternately with palms and blossoming flowers (I Kings 6:29; Ezek. 41:18-20, 25).

The prototype of such representations can perhaps be seen in the Egyptian genii, depicted on either side of the naos of the gods, on sarcophagi, which they surrounded with outspread wings to protect them. The figure, however, that Ezekiel gives us of them (1:5-14; 10:5, 12, 20, 21), is influenced by the mixed depictions carved in the Assyrian, Phoenician and Hittite milieu. In them art sought to unite the highest powers of nature and of life.

Giorgio Castellino

C. IN CHRISTIAN ART

In the complex and not always clear iconography of the angelic hosts as it appears in the Byzantine art of the early Middle Ages and in that which derives from it, it is perhaps possible to clarify a few points relating to the cherubim, which are generally depicted in monochrome or in tints tending toward a blue or greenish-blue monochrome, just as the seraphim are depicted in red. However, the varieties of representation are many, and while in the most ancient times the tetramorphic type with four wings prevails, as described by Ezekiel (1:1 ff.) (columns of St. Mark's), already around the middle of the 8th century (Rome, S. Maria Antiqua) a type with six wings and a human head appears, entirely similar to the seraphim; nor do other differences, which sometimes seem as though they might be determined, give us any greater certainty for a distinction — such as that of the head, which the cherubim should always leave visible while the seraphim almost hide it among the wings, and of the winged wheels on which the feet of the cherubim often rest (Exultet of Bari, ca. mid-11th century; Monreale, cathedral, 12th century). The only clear distinction should therefore be that of a prevalence of the color blue. But even this is not decisive, since it is not rare (musicians of the cathedral of Cefalù, 12th century) for a mosaicist or a painter to depict cherubim with red faces and many-colored wings and then have to clarify his representation by indicating with an inscription that those he has depicted are indeed cherubim.

However, it is in Tuscany, in the 14th century, that, at least as regards color, a clear differentiation comes to be established. It had already been hinted at in the 13th-century mosaics that cover the dome of the Florentine baptistery, but it seems to become clear at Siena, where the Lorenzetti clearly distinguish the blue of the cherubim from the red of the seraphim and the yellow of the thrones. Thus in a painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Sienese Pinacoteca, in the crucifixion assigned to Barna in the Vatican Pinacoteca, and in certain paintings by Bernardo Daddi.

But during the 15th century, in the typical progress of the age toward an ever more naturalistic representation of sacred scenes, the sense of those distinctions seems to be lost.

One will then see little heads of putti, sunk among soft many-colored wings, distributed according to a purely aesthetic order within the compositions and inserted even as decorative motifs into architectural elements; they will then acquire in our eyes a new interest and arouse a different admiration, above all for the intense human tenderness of their expression (Della Robbia, Desiderio da Settignano, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Bellini, etc.). - See Pl. LXXXVI.

Emilio Lavagnino