"How like an Angel": Self-Fashioning in Pico della Mirandola and Raphael

The projected image of the philosopher Pico della Mirandola and the painter Raphael share a common trait: both were seen by contemporaries as angels. The role Pico and Raphael themselves played in the establishment of this assimilation is discussed, as is the theological and intellectual background of the function of angels in this period. Especially the latter is shown to make a biographical interpretation of angelic connotations in both figures such as presented by Vasari (Raphael) or Gianfrancesco Pico (Pico) extremely hazardous. Rather, elements of self-fashioning merge with theological and philosophical trends in the creation of the angelic image.