*Sacred Scripture* The Fall of the Rebel Angels – Bruegel

This artwork by P. Bruegel shows the fierce war between the good angels and the demons, who are depicted here as ugly and fantastical beasts.

Jude 1:6

The False Teachers.

6^f The angels too, who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in gloom, for the judgment of the great day.^*

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jude/1

Rv 12:9

9The huge dragon, the ancient serpent,^* who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.^e

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/12

The Fall of the Rebel Angels – Bruegel

The Fall of Rebel Angels depicts Lucifer along with the other fallen angels that have been banished from heaven. Angels are falling from the sun in a stacked manner along with ungodly creatures that Bruegel created.

Painted in 1562, Bruegel’s depiction of this subject of Lucifer falling with his fallen angels is taken from a passage from Revelation 12, and reveals the artist’s profound debt to Hieronymus Bosch. This is shown through the grotesque, ugly or distorted, figures painted as half-human and half-apocalyptic creatures.

Lucifer was designed to be a perfect angel. He fell from heaven because of his pride and rebellion against God’s divine plan, which was to appoint Jesus as the people’s savior. Lucifer coerced one-third of the angels to follow his lead in the rebellion and to assist in appointing him to be the new “God.” The sin of pride caused the fall of Lucifer and his companions and resulted in the “war in heaven.” The archangel Michael was given the duty to drive Lucifer and the fallen angels out of heaven. The conflict of good and evil as well as vice and virtue are constant recurring themes throughout Bruegel’s work.