My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it.
Let’s study art history together.
The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple
| Artist | William Holman Hunt |
|---|---|
| Year | 1860 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 141.0 cm × 85.7 cm (55+1⁄2 in × 33+3⁄4 in) |
| Location | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
This painting depicts one of the most interesting moments from the New Testament. It is recounted in the 2nd chapter of Luke, from what most scholars believe to be an interview conducted by Luke with the Blessed Mother herself. (If you’ve never read the first two chapters with the idea in mind that it comes from an interview between Luke and Mary, I suggest doing so. You won’t fail to notice when you look for it.)
The story is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it provides an early example of Jesus possessing more than just a precocious knowledge, but rather a profound wisdom and a glimpse into His future. Second, the scene has been given a unique status within the Church, as part of the Holy Rosary prayer (via being the 5th of the Joyful Mysteries) since the 16th century. Third, some who are skeptics of Jesus point to this scene as evidence of misbehavior by Jesus rather than it being a divine sign. As to this third point though, volumes of Christian scholarship contradict this argument – as does the attitude and behavior o Mary (whose opinion is certainly relevant.)
I’ll be honest that I never really let this moment from Scripture really move me until I saw it depicted very well on screen. The scene is an imagination of what the moment from Scripture may have been like, but it seems to me that it was well done.
Foreshadowing is awesome. Obviously our painter above thought so, too.
The painting identifies Christ for us by putting Him in red and blue – as is customary for His portrayals in most of the history of Christian art. After this color draws in my eyes, I next notice His Mother, and then the faces of the Rabbis with whom he has been speaking. We see a big crowd fathered and I really love the way the artist provides each with different expressions, but all collectively indicating to us a sense of astonishment.
Who is tis child? Who will He be?
(more via wiki)
The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1854–1860) is a painting by the English artist William Holman Hunt intended as an ethnographically accurate version of the subject traditionally known as “Christ Among the Doctors“, an illustration of the child Jesus debating the interpretation of the scripture with learned rabbis. The passage illustrated is from the Gospel of Luke, 2:41, which states:
Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Hunt depicts the moment at which Mary and Joseph find Jesus, while the rabbis in the temple are reacting in various contrasting ways to his discourse, some intrigued, others angry or dismissive. This depiction of contrasting reactions is part of the tradition of the subject, as evidenced in Albrecht Dürer‘s much earlier version. Hunt would also have known Bernardino Luini‘s version of the subject in the National Gallery. At the time this was ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci.
Background
Obsessed with the idea of revitalising religious art by emphasising ethnographical accuracy combined with detailed Biblical symbolism, Hunt had travelled to the Middle East to create the picture, using local people as models and studying ancient Judaic customs and rituals. Progress on the painting was delayed by difficulties with models, and eventually Hunt postponed it to work on another project, The Scapegoat. He eventually completed it in 1860, back in England. His friend Frederic George Stephens wrote a pamphlet containing a detailed explanation of the content and the characters. It was then shown in a series of popular travelling exhibitions at which visitors could buy the pamphlet and subscribe to an engraved reproduction. These were organised by the dealer Ernest Gambart, and proved a great financial success.
Hunt sold the painting to Charles Dickens for £5,500.
Thomas Carlyle gave his thoughts in a letter:
The Christ is an exquisite mixture of a god and a peasant lad. His mother too is very fine; but I thot she shd have been a little angry withal (at having got such a fright from her careless son) instead of merely rapturous over him as she might be over a baby saved from the wolf. There were other criticisms:-but I have not seen such a Picture, for fidelity of execution, for exquisite finish, and limner and other talent, by any modern man.
For an excellent review of the painting, please let me direct you to the following video:
