The stranger in early modern and modern Jewish tradition Angels are the ultimate stranger. They come from another world and have a special place in the art of the Russian Jewish painter Marc Chagall (1887 1985). In My Life (1923) the young Chagall recalls one memorable night in Saint Petersburg. Drifting into sleep in the corner of a room (all he could afford) he suddenly saw the ceiling open and a winged being surrounded by light and blue air hovered above him before disappearing through the ceiling again