I’m not religious. However, I appreciate art. Last year we went to the Vatican. It was breathtaking. All the art on the walls was stunning and I couldn’t tell it some things were carved or painted. We saw statutes and paintings of Cherubs, who are obviously boys. We go into the Vatican and walk the halls full of paintings and I noticed that there were seemingly no male angles. There were some in recognizable biblical scenes, but I counted only a handful. All the others were women! There were hundreds! Is this due to the interpretation of the Bible at the time or artistic choice? I’m curious!
There’s definitely a lot more to be said about the subject, but you may be interested in u/caffarelli’s answer to “Where did the modern conception of Angels come from? How did they change through history?” about the history of depictions of angels as more androgynous beings, which I think is what you’re seeing here (it also shows up with named angels — see, for example, da Vinci’s depiction of the archangel Gabriel during the Annunciation).
