Daemon of Science and Judgment
"I bent over the pathetic workbench of the starving alchemist and whispered to him
keys that one day would order the course of great foundations. I nudged explorers
to the ends of the Earth, and I flung an apple at Newton when his obtuseness vexed
me!" ------------------------------------------------ Asmodeus, via The Diabolicon
Artwork © Joan Ann Lansberry, September 26, 2010
(Hand colored, with digital adjustments afterwards)

This illustration is based on the "Daemon of Science and Judgment" as depicted in Dr. Aquino's Diabolicon:

"Attend now to me, for I am Asmodeus, who train the mind in recognition and comparison, and who am Daemon of science and judgment."

This view does have historical precedence. Johann Wier describes this daemon in his 1583 Pseudomonarchia daemonum:

"he absolutelie teacheth geometrie, arythmetike, astronomie, and handicrafts."

But Dr. Aquino has introduced refinements, for the head of the daemons declares:

"For we would not have him view mechanism alone as the hallmark of his progress" for
"Into the workings of the mind of man we shall convey aesthetic sensitivity and artistic restlessness, and he shall not view his achievements without considering their improvement to his temporal pleasure."

The head of the daemons knows each daemons's limitations:
"And I brought life and adventure and achievement to man, but each gift was as well a tool for destruction and death, and more oft than not were the ages of man fraught with terror and war, for Uriel ceased not his work ever to turn man against man. And I knew that Asmodeus alone should not complete man, but that forces other than mine should approach the definition of his infinity."

And so other Daemons' endeavors complement Asmodeus' efforts to bring about humanity's evolution.

I sought out a variety of sources before beginnning my illustration. Collin de Plancy illustrated Asmodeus in 1818. But what a hideous creature he is! As might be expected for the Archbishop of Paris to approve his portrait! But elsewhere, he "was widely depicted as having a handsome visage, good manners and an engaging nature" according to Wikipedia source Maximilian Rudwin.

For my illustration, I wanted a handsome visage. To begin, I assembled a variety of reference photos:

Among them were photos of the most recent "Dr Who", rotated to the desired angle, stylish men's hair models with just the right amount of 'wild hair', and examples of laboratory flasks. But no where could I find a suitable 'devilish grin', so I had to use my own devilish grin for that. I also used my own hands, grasping a candlestick holder that has about the same circumferance as the neck of a flask.

I was surprised when I finished the line drawing to see a young daemonic woman smiling back at me!

Did using my own features for the grin result in that? However I'm amused for Wikipedia's source, the Fantastic library at Cornell, from which Plancy's image was sourced, declares the daemon of "discovery and of ingenious inventions" "often takes the form of a young woman"!

Sources on Asmodeus:
The Diabolicon, by Michael Aquino
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmodeus
http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Asmodeus
http://fantastic.library.cornell.edu/imagerecord.php?record=49
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Mathers-Goetia/pages/032-Seal-of-Asmoday/#details
Sources of Drawing Inspiration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Doctor
www.ayushveda.com/mens-magazine/mens-hairstyles/
http://www.indigo.com/glass/gphglass/volumetric-flask.html