Is this illustration no more than a charming genre scene where angels are resting around a picnic table? It is both idyllic and strange, and filled with a light sense of hidden humor. The most prominent feature is the oversized wings of the three angels, suggesting a wall of brilliant light in a drab and shadowy landscape. The angels are an image of vigor and youth, and stand in stark contrast to the frail and wasted figures of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is ninety-nine years old, and Sarah has the looks of Chagall's own grandmother, that "little old woman" with the "wrinkled face. " It is in this contrast between the tired old couple and the youthful angels with the stirred up wings that we discover the fine sense of humor permeating this scene, where two simple people extend hospitality to God's own messengers. Indeed, how can it be that out of the exhausted loins of this aged couple will come a son, a people and a nation? The miracle of the announcement and Sarah's impending pregnancy show that God has a sense of humor, making light of people's conventions and nature's laws. In this, as in other plates, the event vibrates, with life. Here, it is all in the wings of the angels. A sign of the divine and its power, they convey the feeling of restless creativeness and endless movement.
Related scripture reading: Genesis 18: 1-8
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