The Fall of the Rebel Angels (detail) 1530

Domenico Beccafumi created this oil painting, ‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels,’ sometime in the first half of the 16th century. Painted in Italy, the figures and architecture convey a sense of destabilization and collapse. We can see the social impact of the reformation here, not only in its dramatic subject matter but in its challenge to the artistic norms of the High Renaissance. By the 1530s, Mannerism was emerging in reaction to the classical idealism of artists such as Leonardo and Raphael. It valued subjective expression and imagination over the accurate representation of nature, seen here in Beccafumi’s dramatic coloring, crowded composition, and distorted space. By looking at the painting in its historical context, we see it reflecting cultural and institutional shifts. Art history can help us better understand the painting, not just as an aesthetic object, but as a product of social forces.