Angels Announcing the Birth of Our Savior 1790

Benjamin West created this ink and wash drawing, Angels Announcing the Birth of Our Savior, in the late 18th to early 19th century. During West’s time, as today, the image of the angel was often used to bridge the earthly and divine. Here, West’s angels push against this tradition. Instead of static, idealized forms, we see figures in dynamic motion, their faces alive with emotion. These are not the sexless beings of Renaissance art, but rather, androgynous figures who seem to embody both masculine strength and feminine grace. Their active and powerful presence suggests an alternative to the passive and submissive femininity often associated with religious iconography. In this drawing, West has not simply illustrated a biblical scene, he has reimagined it through a queer lens. The angels are neither male nor female, neither earthly nor divine, but exist in a liminal space that challenges our assumptions about gender, identity, and faith. In doing so, West invites us to question what it means to be holy and challenges us to consider whether God might exist outside the confines of our human understanding.