''The Fall of the Damned'', alternately known as ''The Fall of the Rebel Angels'', is a monumental religious painting by

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

dated around 1620. It depicts a jumble of the bodies of the damned, hurled into the abyss by

archangel Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

and accompanying angels. In 1959, an art vandal threw acid on the painting. According to him, he did not directly destroy the work, as the acid "relieves one from the work of destruction".

Sketch

The sketch of ''The Fall of the Damned'' was made in black and red

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

s, with a grey wash and is kept in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. It is assumed to be the work of a studio assistant, which Rubens then went over with a brush and oil colour. The dramatic

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

of the human forms and clouds emphasizes the darkness into which these figures fall, far from the heavenly light above.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fall of the Damned, The Paintings by Peter Paul Rubens 1620 paintings Paintings based on the Book of Revelation Paintings depicting Michael (archangel) Vandalized works of art Collection of the Alte Pinakothek Angels in art