The Interior Journey from the Christian Perspective: A look into the Human Experience of Sin and RedeMption Through the Medium of Christian and Non-Christian Works
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The interior journey of a person throughout one's life is particularly unique to the human experience, particularly through the Christian context. This collection is meant to exhibit the struggles attributed to sin all the while ultimately being led on the journey towards restoration and union, otherwise known as holiness. The gallery contains various works spanning from the 1500s to the late 1800s including both Christian and non-Christian works in order to display the universality of the human interior condition. It is meant to draw the viewer chronologically through the experience of sin with the interior tug-of-war involved into the Encounter of the one who comes to meet us on the journey and guiding us back to the fullness of life.
Adam and Eve, Albrecht Dürer, 1504, From the collection of: Art Gallery of Ontario
(For the video start at 1:28 end at 3:26)
At the root of humanity's struggle is interior battle against evil, the privation of the good, otherwise known as sin. Where did this stem? How did this battle begin? In the Christian and monotheistic faiths, the human is the pinnacle of God's creation. Created not merely good, but very good in God's image and likeness. Out of God's love mankind was given the choice to love God in obeying him or refusing to receive his gift of life. Adam and Eve's moment of fault, this refusal of obedience and thus refusal of love, is the cause of sin's entrance into the world and human family. It was the loss of God's likeness and man's inclination towards sin.
Dürer's Adam and Eve is a masterfully crafted engraving from the period of the Northern Renaissance. It encapsulates the precise detail favored during this movement. Every minute etching of the idealized and more realistic form of man and nature is portrayed in this work.
Self-Reflection, c. 1901-1902, Alfred Kubin, c. 1901-1902, From the collection of: Albertina Museum
Kubin's Self-Reflection communicates the dark side of the human interior experience. An experience of anguish, self-destruction through the warped lens of one's self. The man's dismantled grotesque head looks on his headless body dressed in what looks like dancing shoes and performing tights possibly signifying the grief and anguish of life feeling as though it is one big act of imprisonment. Kubin's expressionist works were all quite dark, giving insight to the state of his soul especially earlier on in his life. It was in 1896 that he tried to commit suicide on his mother's grave but, did not end up going through with it. After this episode he went on to study art (Oxford Art Online).
Self-Reflection is a piece seeming to be without hope. It expresses utter despair which is the path in which one can be left to if forsaken, on their own, and in the dark. The Expression movement this drawing stems from looks to evoke intense emotion as this work certainly does catch the eye and evoke the great passion of anguish.
The mere name of this work describes a common occurrence experienced in the interior life, Desolation. The woman's body carved out of stone lays in melancholy with her hair flowing over her face, hiding her expression, and cuts off her involvement with the outside. One cannot tell the full content of her thoughts but, only to see her in a slump. It doesn't evoke total hopelessness but, could be paralleled to the experience of being upset over one's faults with hopes to overcome them.
Llimona was involved in the Catalan Modernism movement which sought to revitalize the Catalan culture. It particularly emphasizes symbolism, the expression of inward realities, and the use of light and darkness with contrasting characteristics of the softness and rough exterior of the sculpture. The roughness of the carved stone is exposed at the bottom of the sculpture while the body of the woman nude is very soft and light with emphasis placed in the texture of her hair, hiding her face and the detail of her arms extended. All of this detail gives expression to this interior state of desolation.
Hope Comforting Love in Bondage could particularly personify the tension amidst growth in love throughout life. It is often that one is unable to love because one has trapped oneself beneath a wall they have built around their heart, unable to love whether it be out of fear of rejection, selfishness, or anything that causes egocentrism. The fact that hope is personified as comforting love is quite notable as it is when one is able to look beyond oneself to another in hope is when one is free to love. Love is the center of the Christian existence, it is the goal of one's life.
Meteyard's Pre-Raphaelite style captures the mythological look to the personification of virtues with immense detail and precision. During this time period, most artists were leaning away towards representational works and the Pre-Raphaelite painters were thus often shunned for their works. Even though, this was a quite under appreciated counter-reform to the popularized reforms in art, the works composed became celebrated once again during the 1960s as it seemed the popular reforms of art had finally began to reach their limits of minimalism and abstraction (Barringer). Meteryard's Hope Comforting Love in Bondage is truly a masterpiece, painted with such skill and precision all the while personifying seemingly abstract concepts such as love and hope making them accessible to the viewer.
Christ and Mary Magdalene, a Finnish Legend, Albert Edelfelt, 1890, From the collection of: Ateneum Art Museum
Christ and Mary Magdalene, Finnish Legend, depicts a locally clad Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus while on the journey in the woods. Mary is on her knees reverencing Christ who looks upon her with mercy. Through, the encounter Mary has with Christ, her life is forever changed. This piece does not depict the classical encounter of Christ and Mary Magdalene but, places them within the ethnic and social background of Edelfelt's Finland. It truly is a personal encounter in which the viewer can place in the context of one's own life.
Edelfelt incorporates naturalism within his works as seen in the Finnish forest depicted in this scene. His modernization of the encounter of Christ and Mary Magdalene, was a raising idea in religious depictions during this time period based on Ernest Renan's book The Life of Jesus (Ateneum Art Museum). Edelfelt wanted this religious scene, as well as the historical scenes he painted, to be relatable to the people according to the times.
Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1861, From the collection of: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Though, this painting is from Greek mythology when Orpheus rescues his wife Eurydice, who had been bitten by a snake, from the underworld, it could also relate to Christ who rescues the sinner from "the underworld" bringing them up to life, leading them along the journey. It is also interesting that the Greek mythology includes Eurydice who had been bitten by a snake paralleling with the Genesis story of Eve's falling into temptation of the serpent and dying the death.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a Realist influenced by Neo-classicalism as shown in his work: Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld. He was a master painter of landscapes and in many works added in mythological creatures.
The Crucified Christ embracing a knight kneeling before him exemplifies the goal of life that one fighting the good fight at the end of his life would be embraced by the Beloved. The subject from which Burne-Jones depicted The Merciful Knight is "St John Gualberto who was miraculously embraced by a wooden figure of Christ while praying at a wayside shrine after forgiving the murder of his kinsman" (Birmingham Museum and Art). This additional detail supplements this interior battle, in this case forgiveness of murder, that the knight has won to which all are called. In the end of his victory, he is embraced and affirmed, "well done my good and faithful servant" (Mt 25:23).
The Merciful Knight was an earlier work of Edward Burne-Jones and is said to be a pivotal piece in the development of his style. He was involved in the aesthetics movement whose works promoted using symbolism and aesthetic values rather than socio-political ideas.
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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.
