I have been familiar with Piero de la Francesca’s painting of the baptism of Christ for half a century, but on my last visit to the National Gallery saw it again with totally fresh eyes.  https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/piero-della-francesca-the-baptism-of-christ

 

It is an exquisite painting, poised in an eternal moment of time, the water pouring onto Jesus’ head as a fine, motionless thread and the dove hovering with no movement of its wings. The landscape, that can still be sensed in the Umbrian hills, is reflected in glassily still water, as if foretelling of a world that will soon be turned upside down. The man preparing for his own baptism after Jesus, is pulling off his shirt in the sort of unselfconscious manner that Degas was to capture centuries later in his pastels of women bathing.

 

This time, however, I focussed on the angels and was immediately perplexed by the expression on the face of the middle angel: worried, fearful, nervous. Why wasn’t she feeling happy or joyful at Christ’s baptism? The angel to the right holds her hand reassuringly but also seems too nervous to look at the scene. Why would she not want to witness it? The angel to the left does look at Christ, but with grim stoicism rather than joy or celebration. She holds out her right hand as if to say, ‘Stay calm. Don’t panic. Have faith. This is all part of God’s plan.’