Cherub
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"[Man is more than] a winged cherub without a body. [He] is himself rooted in that world; he finds himself in it as an individual, that is to say, his knowledge, which is the necessary supporter of the whole world as idea, is yet always given through the medium of a body." --Schopenhauer, book 2 of The World as Will and Representation |
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A cherub is a type of winged spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God. The plural can be written as cherubim or cherubs (sometimes cherubims in English translations). In modern English the word cherub is sometimes used for what are strictly putti — baby or toddler angels in art. This article is concerned with the original sense of the word.
Cherubim are mentioned in the Torah (five books of Moses), the Book of Ezekiel, and the Book of Isaiah. They are also mentioned in the books of 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, and 2 Chronicles mainly in the construction of the House of God. They are also mentioned extensively in the Psalms. There is only one mention in the New Testament, in Hebrews 9:5, referring to the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
Depictions
There were no cherubim in Herodian reconstruction of the Temple, but according to some authorities, its walls were painted with figures of cherubim. In Christian art they are often represented with the faces of a lion, ox, eagle, and man peering out from the center of an array of four wings (Ezekiel 1:5-11, 10:12,21 Revelation 4:8); (seraphim have six); the most frequently encountered descriptor applied to cherubim in Christianity is many-eyed, and in depictions the wings are often shown covered with a multitude of eyes (showing them to be all seeing beings). Since the Renaissance, in Western Christianity cherubim have become confused with putti—innocent souls, looking like winged children, that sing praises to God daily—that can be seen in innumerable church frescoes and in the work of painters such as Raphael.
See also
- Al-Buraq
- Angel
- Cherubism (medical condition)
- Cupid and Kamadeva
- Merkabah mysticism
- Lamassu
- Tetramorph
- Cherubs of the Sistine Madonna
