Category:Statues of Androgynous Angels

Until the last decades of the XIXth century in Western Art, Angels were almost always portrayed as male. This imagery most likely derives from the fact that there are no instances in the Bible of female angels (though other ancient traditions and writings do occasionally portray angels as female).^[1] In Western funerary art, one of the earliest examples of female attributes in an Angel sculpture stands guard at the Oneto tomb in the Cemetery of Staglieno in Genova, a masterpiece by Giulio Monteverde sculpted in 1882. It is an immensely influential work, as evidenced by duplicates and similar statues in many cemeteries around the world. While the Monteverde Angel, on close examination, is clearly female, she retains many characteristics of the traditional male Angel, notably the tuba (trumpet) often associated with the announcement of the Resurrection.

Society changed in the following decades, and so did the depiction of Angels in cemetery sculpture. In works of the XXth century and later, Angels are much more likely to be portrayed as female. A closer examination of the period between the Monteverde Angel and the early XXth century emergence of female Angels reveals a notable transitional image: the Androgynous Angel,^[2] basically a male figure, usually young adult or adolescent, with subtle female attributes.

1. ↑ Davidson, Gustav (1967) A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, New York: The Free Press ISBN: 0029069408.
2. ↑ Declerq, Marie (02 Novembro 2016). Catalogando a simbologia da morte nos cemitérios de São Paulo. www.vice.com/. Retrieved on 1 September 2019. "É o que cuida da alma da pessoa e garantirá também uma boa travessia. Muitas vezes são representados mais eroticamente na forma de mulheres voluptuosas ou com aspectos mais andróginos."