Angelus Novus
E202564
Angelus Novus is a 1920 monoprint by Paul Klee, often interpreted as a haunting, abstract depiction of an angel that became famous through Walter Benjamin’s philosophical reflections on history.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Angelus Novus canonical | 4 |
| Angel of History | 2 |
| Angelus Novus (Latin) | 1 |
| angel of history | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1811707 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Angelus Novus Context triple: [Paul Klee, notableWork, Angelus Novus]
-
A.
Strange Meeting
"Strange Meeting" is a renowned anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen that depicts a surreal encounter between two dead soldiers, powerfully conveying the futility and horror of war.
-
B.
The Sundial
"The Sundial" is a darkly comic Gothic novel by Shirley Jackson that explores themes of family dysfunction, apocalyptic prophecy, and claustrophobic isolation within a grand, eerie mansion.
-
C.
The Light
The Light is a notable work by the rapper Common, showcasing his introspective lyricism and soulful, jazz-influenced hip-hop style.
-
D.
Fiat Lux
Fiat Lux is a Latin phrase meaning "Let there be light," used as the inspirational motto of the University of California, Berkeley.
-
E.
The Visionary
"The Visionary" is a psychological novel by Norwegian author Jonas Lie that explores themes of imagination, identity, and the blurred line between reality and fantasy.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Angelus Novus Target entity description: Angelus Novus is a 1920 monoprint by Paul Klee, often interpreted as a haunting, abstract depiction of an angel that became famous through Walter Benjamin’s philosophical reflections on history.
-
A.
Strange Meeting
"Strange Meeting" is a renowned anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen that depicts a surreal encounter between two dead soldiers, powerfully conveying the futility and horror of war.
-
B.
The Sundial
"The Sundial" is a darkly comic Gothic novel by Shirley Jackson that explores themes of family dysfunction, apocalyptic prophecy, and claustrophobic isolation within a grand, eerie mansion.
-
C.
The Light
The Light is a notable work by the rapper Common, showcasing his introspective lyricism and soulful, jazz-influenced hip-hop style.
-
D.
Fiat Lux
Fiat Lux is a Latin phrase meaning "Let there be light," used as the inspirational motto of the University of California, Berkeley.
-
E.
The Visionary
"The Visionary" is a psychological novel by Norwegian author Jonas Lie that explores themes of imagination, identity, and the blurred line between reality and fantasy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
human
ⓘ
human ⓘ monoprint ⓘ painting ⓘ |
| artHistoricalSignificance | iconic image in 20th-century intellectual history ⓘ |
| associatedConcept |
Angel of History
ⓘ
linked to:
Angelus Novus
catastrophe of progress ⓘ historical materialism ⓘ philosophy of history ⓘ |
| cataloguedIn | Paul Klee catalogue raisonné ⓘ |
| collection |
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
ⓘ
linked to:
Israel Museum
|
| colorPalette | monochrome ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Germany ⓘ |
| creator | Paul Klee ⓘ |
| creatorInstanceOf | Paul Klee ⓘ |
| culturalImpact | symbol of the Angel of History in Benjaminian scholarship ⓘ |
| depicts | angel ⓘ |
| describedBy | Walter Benjamin ⓘ |
| exhibitionHistory | exhibited in various international Klee retrospectives ⓘ |
| genre | abstract art ⓘ |
| hasTitleInLanguage |
Angelus Novus (Latin)
ⓘ
linked to:
Angelus Novus
|
| hasWikipediaPage | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus ⓘ |
| imageFeature |
frontal angelic figure
ⓘ
geometric abstraction ⓘ outstretched wings ⓘ staring eyes ⓘ |
| inception | 1920 ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary art theory
ⓘ
critical theory ⓘ |
| inspiredWork | Theses on the Philosophy of History ⓘ |
| languageOfTitle | Latin ⓘ |
| laterOwnedBy |
Gershom Scholem
ⓘ
The Israel Museum ⓘ
linked to:
Israel Museum
|
| location | Jerusalem ⓘ |
| materialUsed |
gouache
ⓘ
ink ⓘ paper ⓘ |
| movement |
Expressionism
ⓘ
Modernism ⓘ |
| notableViewer | Walter Benjamin ⓘ |
| occupation |
painter
ⓘ
philosopher ⓘ |
| ownedBy | Walter Benjamin ⓘ |
| titleMeaning | New Angel ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Angelus Novus Description of subject: Angelus Novus is a 1920 monoprint by Paul Klee, often interpreted as a haunting, abstract depiction of an angel that became famous through Walter Benjamin’s philosophical reflections on history.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Angelus Novus
linked to: Angelus Novus
linked to: Angelus Novus
linked to: Angelus Novus