The World Light (1851-53) is a allegorical painting by British Pre-Raphael artist William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) which symbolizes the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on the door too long and yet open, describes Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door I will come in unto him, and will have him, and he with me". According to Hunt: "I painted the picture with what I thought it was not feasible even though I, being with the Divine command, and not just as a good Subject." The door in the painting has no grip, and therefore can be opened only from within, representing a "very stubborn mind". Hunting, 50 years after painting, felt he had to explain the symbolism.
Video The Light of the World (painting)
Version
The original is said to have been painted at night in an emergency shack at Worcester Park Farm in Surrey and in the Oxford University Press Park while it was suggested that Hunt find the dawn light he needed outside Bethlehem on one of his visits to the Holy Land. In oil on canvas, it began around 1849/50, completed in 1853, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854 and is now in the side chamber of the great chapel at Keble College, Oxford. The painting was donated to the campus by Thomas Combe's widow, Printer to Oxford University, Tractarian and Pre-Raphael patron, in the year after his death in 1872 on the understanding that it would hang in the chapel (built 1873-76) but the architect of William Butterfield opposed this and does not make any provision in its design. When the college library opened in 1878 it was stationed there, and moved to its present position only after the construction in 1892-5 by another architect, J. T. Micklethwaite, from the side chapel to accommodate it.
The fact that the college at the time was charging to see him persuade Hunt towards the end of his life to paint a larger version, the size of life, started around 1900 and completed in 1904, purchased by ship owners and social reformer Charles. Booth and hung in St Paul's Cathedral, London, where it was dedicated in 1908 after a 1915-17 world tour in which the drawing draws a huge crowd. Claimed that four-fifths of Australians see it. Because Hunt increases her weakness and glaucoma, she is assisted in the completion of this version by the English painter Edward Robert Hughes (who is also assisted with Hunt's version of The Lady of Shalott). Hunt is buried in St Paul.
The third version, a smaller painting, painted by Hunt in pastels between 1851 and 1856, was exhibited at the Manchester City Art Gallery, England, which bought it in 1964.
Maps The Light of the World (painting)
Reception
This painting gave rise to a very popular devotion at the end of the Victorian period and inspired several musical works, including Arden Sullivan's oratorio 1873, The Light of the World. Broadly carved reproductions are hung in nurseries, schools and church buildings.
References
The work cited
- Hunt, W. H. (1905). Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . 1 . London: Macmillan.
Further reading
- Maas, Jeremy (1984). Holman Hunt and Light of the World . Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-85967-683-0.
External links
- Revelation 3:20
- Victorian Web information
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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