elacroix's famous Jacob Wrestling with the Angel in the Saint-Sulpice cathedral in Paris is a monumental painting. In a side chapel to the right of the front entry, it is 16 feet wide by 25 feet tall. I have visited it, admired it, and photographed it. It is a breathtaking painting with amazing details. There's a wonderful scene in the film “The Tango Lesson” by Sally Potter where she dances a ravishing tango beneath the painting.
The story of Jacob wrestling the Angel is this:
Jacob has double-crossed and throughly ticked off his brother Esau, who was coming with 400 men to destroy him. (You can see the hostile forces on the right of the painting, and as a line of horsemen climbing the hill behind Jacob and the Angel.) He transports his family across the river Jabbok by night, then recrosses it to gather and transport his remaining possessions. From there...
“…a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.” Genesis 32:22-32
What's interesting about this angel is that it is nameless, or more accurately, refuses to be named. It also wounds Jacob in the same place the Fisher King of the Holy Grail is wounded. This kind of wound is often seen as a metaphor for impotence or infertility, although Jacob did have one more son, Benjamin, after the wrestling match. Jacob was very prideful that he had defeated the angel, but to me it wasn't a defeat, nor even a draw. The angel bested Jacob. Jacob, by the way, was not a very nice guy. He deceived his blind father, Isaac, into blessing him by pretending to be his brother Esau (which is why Esau was coming for him).
This angel has no obvious intentions. Why he attacks Jacob is never clarified. Why he wounds him is also unclear. Perhaps it is because Jacob stole his brother's blessings. But Jacob sees the fight as another blessing—hubris or a fickle deity? Definitely a "Dark Angel" in my book.