The second painting we looked at was ‘Triumph of the Innocents’, by William Holman Hunt, 1876. This painting depicts the Holy Family attempting to escape Bethlehem, where there was a massacre of baby boys. The landscape is set on the road to Gaza, where there is a flock of baby boy’s ghosts guiding Jesus out of harm’s way. One of the infants has a rip across his chest where he was stabbed to death. There is no blood because the baby has now been healed through the life to death transition. From one end of the canvas to the other, these baby boys seem to become more aware of the transition from life to death as they appear to be more determined to pull the Holy Family away from harm.
In the distance of the landscape Hunt paints pin pricks of light, which are beacons, signifying urgency, warning and danger. Also in the distance, amongst the dark trees there is a ladder, this symbolizes Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob's Ladder is a ladder to heaven, described in the Book of Genesis, which the biblical patriarch Jacob envisions during his flight from his brother Esau. The piece is painted on Egyptian cotton as Hunt didn’t receive the usual canvas that he usually used for his work. When he tried to stretch the cotton, it ripped across the Virgins face, many people saw this as a superstition and thought it was the work of the Devil.
No comments:
Post a Comment