What is a Cherub?
A cherub is a winged celestial entity, first represented in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation of the Christian Bible as the second of nine orders of angels, emerging more recently in modern books such as Milton’s Paradise Lost. Usually a cherub is depicted as a small angel, most often an innocent child, with a round, rosy face. The plural of the word cherub can be either cherubs or cherubim, and occasionally “cherubims” is used, as it was in the King James Version of the Christian Bible. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism both include beliefs in the existence of cherubim angels, though some maintain the latter interprets cherubim references to be more figurative than literal in nature. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism tend to either use angel references metaphorically or drop them altogether. However, in Kabbalah, Hasidic Judaism, and Jewish mysticism, cherubim have always been an important component and are regarded as mystical. Catholic theology ranks cherubim on the second tier of the angelic hierarchy–second to Seraphim.
Christian Biblical art typically depicts cherubim with four wings, sometimes with the faces of lions, oxen, eagles, or adult men. Christianity’s most common adjective referring to cherubim is “many-eyed”, and in certain portraits, their wings are covered with eyes to indicate their all-seeing powers. Western Christianity has often confused cherubim with “putti”, who began appearing in Italian art during the Renaissance period. Putti are pudgy, human, almost exclusively male winged babies, innocent souls who sing daily praises to God. This representation of cherubim has appeared in innumerable church interiors and in addition to the work of Renaissance painters such as Raphael. Many people are fans of this depiction of cherubs, whose likeness appears on very popular shirts, stationery, wall art, and garden décor accents, such as a cherub garden fountain.