The Nudity of Giovanni di Paolo's Angel

Abstract

Laurinda Dixon's interesting reading of Giovanni di Paolo's Expulsion in Lehman Collection as a representation of this event in association with an implied Annunciation (Giovanni di Paolo's Cosmology, Art Bulletin, LXVII, 1985, 604-13) may also explain another unusual aspect of this panel: nakedness of angel who firmly but gently directs Adam and Eve out of Paradise. (The angel of Expulsion in Washington panel also cited by Professor Dixon, though not as naked as his counterpart in Lehman painting, wears only a transparent loincloth, which contrasts with conventionally angelic raiment of Gabriel in this painting.) As a literary parallel to pictorial association of themes of Expulsion and Annunciation, Dixon quotes statement that . . . took place to repair not only fall of man, but ruin of angels' from reading for March 25 in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend. Voragine's words express widely held belief that man was created to replace fallen angels. The same notion is set forth by anonymous author of late 13th-century Meditations on Life of Christ, who introduces his account of Incarnation with a description of angels, the first and most blessed spirits, who, feeling compassion for man in his misery after Fall, prostrated themselves all toget er in front of [the Lord's] throne to pray, saying 'O Lord, it pleased your Majesty to make noble and rational creature, man, through your benevolence, that his salvation might be here with us, so that reparation of our fall might occur. . . . Lord, spread your hand compassionately and impart benediction.'2 The common currency of this belief is suggested also