The Angel Binding Satan

This Angel Binding Satan, around 1797, at the Yale Center for British Art, represents de Loutherbourg's engagement with apocalyptic and religious subjects in his later career. The painter became increasingly interested in mysticism and visionary subjects, influenced by the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg. Philip James de Loutherbourg, born in Alsace and trained in Paris before settling in England, was the most theatrically gifted landscape painter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His Eidophusikon demonstrated his interest in effects of light and atmosphere. He introduced the Continental Romantic tradition of the dramatic landscape into the English context, combining precise observation with theatrical organization of light and atmosphere.

The supernatural subject allows de Loutherbourg to deploy his full range of dramatic lighting effects. The angelic figure radiates divine light while Satan writhes in darkness, the contrast between light and shadow creating maximum theatrical impact.