Love or Death - What Are Angels Up To?

Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
1995-06-15
Section: METRO
Edition: ONE - FOUR
Page: 1C

LOVE OR DEATH - WHAT ARE ANGELS UP TO?

DEBORAH PARKHILL MULLIS, Staff Writer

Those chubby ``cherubs'' on this year's Love stamps may not be the little darlings they appear to be.

The angelic creatures are the creation of Renaissance painter Raphael. The U.S. Postal Service issued a 32-cent angel stamp in February and another for 55 cents in May. The idea was to add a little romance to wedding invitations and Valentine's Day cards, said Dick Rosenbeck, manager at the Independence Contract Station. But at least one lover of Renaissance art doesn't believe the angels are the appropriate adornment for the Love stamps.

``They are not cherubs,' but . . . guardian death angels,'' wrote Joseph Scafetta Jr. in a February letter to the editor of The Washington Post. According to Scafetta guardian death angels or ``putti'' escort the dead to heaven or hell.

He claims the two angels in the painting known as ``The Sistine Madonna'' are ``resting their elbows on top of the coffin bearing the body of Pope Julius II.''

Death angels delivering love letters and wedding invitations does seem inappropriate. But whether those angels are death angels is debatable.

``Putti are just little winged guys,'' said David Steel, curator of European art at the N.C. Museum of Art. ``I'm sure the reason the Postal Service picked them is because they are among the most beautiful angels ever painted.''

Steel doesn't believe these angels are leaning on a coffin waiting for the deceased pope's final destination to be determined. ``To say that that's the coffin of Julius II is stretching it a bit,'' he said.

Steele points out that Pope Julius II was a patron of Raphael and probably commissioned the painting before he died. ``You don't commission a painting like this and leave that issue in doubt,'' he said.

Whatever the case, Charlotteans like the stamp, said Rosenbeck. He said people aren't necessarily asking for the stamps. They're asking for something cute, something different, and something other than a flag stamp.

On that cue, postal clerks make angels appear. 

Photo Reprinted from ``Illustrated Dictionary of Art & Artists'' / The controversial cherubs are from a Raphael painting known as ``The Sistine Madonna.''