To Touch A Mind: Three Paintings

Hahaha, Facebook affects me in so many ways. Like the previous post about books, this post will be about paintings and was provoked by a random thing on Facebook about art appreciation. Well, there are four paintings that have touched my life in the past year.

Our English Coasts or The Strayed Sheep, 1852 A.D., William Holman Hunt

The scene depicted is a herd of sheep on cliffs overlooking the English coast. There are sheep of many kinds: white, black, white and black, brown. Most of the herd stand in the back right of the painting on the edge of a small cliff. Two of the herd lying down. Whether they are merely complacent and sleeping/chewing their cud or exhausted and dead, it is hard to tell. The rest of the herd wanders toward you. One at bottom center is caught in a bunch of briars. Few sheep’s mouths are opened and one can almost hear their calls echoing across the cliffs to be swallowed by the sea beyond. A tiny farm can be seen in the top right corner. The sheep are have wandered, shepherdless, toward the edge of the cliffs. If they fall, they will fall to their deaths.

To the viewer, this herd of sheep reminds us of ourselves. Isaiah 53:6 tells us this “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” and Matthew 9:36 says “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”. I’ve worked on a farm for most of my life and been around livestock since the age of two. Sheep are not smart animals. If they are without a guide, they wander away aimlessly. If something attacks them, they will fly this way and that, not running towards the very thing that would give them safety. If sheep get caught in anything that is seemingly inescapable, they will not move even though with enough effort or with the right position they could free themselves. They are in need of a shepherd, someone to lead them. In the same way, we need a shepherd and someone to guide us. Without one, we will wander and fly purposeless.

On the Sailboat, 1819 A.D., Caspar David Friedrich

The scene depicted by the painting “On the Sailboat” is of a sailboat. Wind fills its sails and the boat sails toward a distant horizon with a golden and beautiful city, full of church steeples and towering buildings. In the prow of boat sits a man and a woman with their hands joined. They face the beautiful city, the sun rising behind the city.

A man steps inside the boat on a journey blown by the wind. The wind blows wherever it wishes, but he does not know where it comes from or where it is going; he only knows that it is needed for the journey. He uses the rudder, pointing the boat toward the distant horizon. Towards this goal, he continually looks, for it is beyond this passing realm of the sea. Time goes by and other boats sail along side him. Eventually another face joins him at the prow. They do not turn and focus on one another, but face the rising sun. The ringing of the church bells of the city echo across the lake. Here in the sea of life, a man and a woman join hands, face the celestial city. As the boat heads towards the light of the rising sun, they continue to gaze at the shore, a vision of beauty.

I struggle for words to explain what this painting holds. Somehow whatever I say, it falls short of what this painting portrays. It is one of the most beautiful illustrations of what marriage is and should be. It is a painting of a boat with a man and a woman, not a painting of a man and a woman in a boat. The boat, one of the symbols of the church, is what carries us near to God. And it is through God at work in the church that marriage is held, blessed, and sanctified. But the focus is not on the people or the marriage, but beyond them to the glorious city of splendor where God dwells where the boat (the church) is carrying them.

Arnolfini Wedding, 1434 A.D., Jan Van Eyck

The portrait of the Arnolfini Wedding shows a man and a woman standing in a bedroom. The man is holding the lady’s right hand and raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing. Both are well dressed. The woman is clothed in a festive green gown with a blue undergown peeking through at the arms. Her head is covered with a white veil while her stomach seems to protrude as if she is pregnant. A single candle burns in the chandelier above them. On the floor, there is a terrier standing between these two figures. To the left, a window is opened; fruit lies upon the window sill and through it, a fruit tree can be seen. In the bottom left, what looks like a pair of shoe heels lay on the floor. On the right is a bed decked in red. Between and behind the man and the woman, a bunch of laurel hangs from a chair with a carving of a woman with a dragon. To the left, three strings of translucent beads hang. A mirror with ten scenes from Christ’s life hangs on the wall. In its reflection, we see the backs of the man and woman and, facing them, two men. Above the mirror, there is a line in Latin which translated means “Johannes van Eyck was here. 1434”. On the ground, in line with the mirror and below, a chair is a woman’s pair of red slippers.

This painting shows the marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini, and Giovanna Cenami. Marriage, according to canonical law, involved the taking of an oath which included the joining of hands and the groom’s raising of his right arm, a practice still kept in courts today when making an oath. The woman’s green dress indicates life. The blue underdress represents purity and virginity. Her head is properly covered in white in the fashion of most brides of the time. Her protruding stomach is does not indicate a pregnancy, but rather symbolizes her ability to bear children. The carving of the woman and dragon is Saint Margaret, the patron saint of childbirth. The dog is a symbol of fidelity; faithfulness stands between a man and his wife. The burning candle in the chandelier, often required for ceremony of an oath, represents the all-seeing, ever present Christ. The three strings of beads are a rosary; the three symbolizes the trinity. The laurel symbolizes victory, victory over death, and life. The fruit on the window represents the fruit of the womb, and reminds us of the fall in Genesis. The red slippers on the ground represent sexuality.
This portrait not only commemorates this marriage, but also serves as a sort of marriage certificate; thus the curious signature with the date. Also, Johannes van Eyck can be seen in the reflection of the mirror entering the room with another person, who could be interpreted as another witness. But on a whole, this painting also serves the purpose of showing us what marriage is. It is the joining of man and woman together in the presence of Christ. Fidelity and sexuality stand between a husband and a wife; it is between them and in marriage only that sex is in its proper place. To the man is given the seed; fruitfulness shall come from him. To the woman is given the bed, childbirth, and victory over death. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” (1 Timothy 2:13-15 ESV). And in the center of the marriage, you find the mirror. It serves us as continual reminder that we are surrounded by the life of Christ and that we will someday be joined to Christ as part of His bride, the Church.