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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hello Patricia, You may have already received tons of answers to your query, but since I did not see any on the list, I am jumping in with a few memories from another time. I am afraid your patron does not have a precise remembrance of the images relating to the traditional hierarchies. While each of the nine choirs has one or more attributes the only two choirs that are associated with specific colors are the closest to God or the Saints when represented in glory, id est the Cherubim and the Seraphim. The Seraphim are usually painted in red, the Cherubim in blue or gold. They are most often, but not always, represented as children heads with six wings, which makes them particularly suitable to be used in circles or almond shapes, or fit into squares and triangular panels at the top of the late Gothic or early Renaissance altarpieces. A good source of information about the hierarchies is Ferguson's dictionary "Signs & Symbols in Christian Art." A very clear representation of the hierarchies that I recollect within a major monument is part of the mosaic of the dome of the Florence Baptistry. Botticelli has a drawing of the nine choirs (no color there...) illustrating the Canto XXVIII of the Paradiso for the Divine Comedy. The Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York has several examples of bright red and gold and blue Seraphim and Cherubim (see Niccolo da Buonaccorso, Coronation of the Virgin; Master of the Marches, Life of Santa Francesca Romana; or the impressive flight of Cherubim escorting God in Giovanni di Paolo's Expulsion from Paradise. Other representations of the "colored" angels can be found in many works of Lorenzo Monaco, Andrea Orcagna, Gentile da Fabriano. Good sources are also the illuminations of manuscripts. If your library has the catalog of a recent exhibition (1994) at the Metropolitan, "Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300-1450," published by Abrams, you can find a number of examples, including some by Fra Angelico. You can also check William Hood, Fra Angelico at San Marco, Yale University Press, 1993. Tuscany was not the only place where angels choirs flew about. Michelino da Besozzo illuminates the Funeral Oration by Pietro di Castelletto, 1403 with a vivid crown of Seraphim and Cherubim circling the Virgin and Child and attendants receiving the soul of the nobleman. Last but not least Andrea Mantegna has many paintings where Cherubim and Seraphim are prominent. Check out the "Adoration of the Shepards" and the "Butler Madonna" at the Metropolitan, "Christ with the Virgin's Soul" at the Pinacoteca in Ferrara, the "Adoration of the Magi" and the "Ascension" in the Uffizi, Florence ( the third panel of the Tryptich exhibits a golden cherub as "sculptural" decoration of the temple...) and more. For "grown up," full figured colored angels, see his "Man of Sorrows with two Angels," where the blue and red are limited to the wings and the tunics. Hope this helps. It was fun to write about it... Anna Bigazzi Anna Bigazzi Mortensen Library University of Hartford West Hartford, CT 06117 [log in to unmask]