Angles

[Traveler]

Any thoughts why traditional depictions of angles heavily favor the feminine?

 

The Traveler

[Grunt]

Obtuse or acute?

[Guest]

It was a stylistic thing for many ages of artwork.  All divine beings were to exemplify the gentleness of a mother's love for her children.  So any divine figure was given feminine features -- even males such as Christ himself.  He had the traditional beard.  But his features in general were made to have a feminine tilt to capture the gentleness of His character.  Softer eyes, smoother skin, more pointed jawline rather than the square line.

Del Parson and Arnold Friberg had a different idea.  The felt that power and strength was the characteristic that they wanted to express in their work.  Thus a more square jaw, great stature, and other features were used to depict such physical strength as being symbolic of the subject's spiritual strength and power.

Notice that the Savior's head in Parson's painting is actually disproportionately small compared to his shoulders.  He's given a strong jaw, powerful beard and nose.  But His eyes are more gentle.  Thus there is still a hint of gentleness mixed in with the power.

Notice that all of Friberg's paintings all show very muscular men.  Even Abinadi, who was depicted as emaciated and aging in the painting was given very large arms and chest.  The sons of Helaman were all shown to be great in stature.  And, of course, we've seen this:

I have a Friberg painting of George Washington entitled "Prayer at Valley Forge."  His hands clasped in front of him are larger than his head.  The use of large hands in a painting were to depict might -- the power to lead men.  And to have those hands clasped in humility before God was a symbolic way of indicating just how humble Washington was.

Now, contrast this with the painting of Capt. Moroni.  Mighty man with large arms and chest.  He holds the Title of Liberty in one hand and a sword in the other.  Notice that his hands are disproportionately small by comparison.  This was partially because the hands were difficult to draw on this scale.  It was also a way of pulling attention away from the man himself, and toward the banner that flew over his head.  Moroni even had a small head with a pointed chin instead of the strong, square jawline.

Does that answer your question?

[CV75]

On 12/21/2017 at 11:57 AM, Traveler said:

Any thoughts why traditional depictions of angles heavily favor the feminine?

 

The Traveler

I think for a long time it was an effort to make them appear genderless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_in_art, perhaps a misunderstanding of Galatians 3:28, Mark 12:25, but certainly older traditions as well.

[Fether]

On 12/21/2017 at 10:05 AM, Grunt said:

Obtuse or acute?

Acute, feminine angles are far cuter that male. An obtuse angle is not acute angle 

[MarginOfError]

Simple answer...predominantly male artists trying to portray beauty injected their preferences of the female form into depictions of beauty.

[Jeremy A]

Let the angle puns begin. Oh, wait, they're probably right. I'm not sure. Maybe they're done. I doubt it.

(We're just messin' with you. My parents recorded a movie called "Date with an Angel" but my dad misspelled angel and wrote "angle" on the label. We've been giving him grief about it for years.)