A visual Journey into the Bible - Theartofpainting.be

The Deuteronomy Page: 12 / 334Courtois gave this the first, immediate impression of the picture: there is chaoseverywhere among friend and foe, men and horses; this is the heat of the battle atwhich point dramatic, drastic action needed to swing the balance of victory to theJewish men. Jacques Courtois painted an extraordinary mêlée of fallen soldiers,slaughtered horses, risen swords, flowing flags, prancing cavaliers, dashing plumes onhelmets, which are all intertwined in the fierce action. Courtois did not have to paintall the details here; he only had to convey to the viewer this impression of chaos tohave the viewer grasp immediately the crux of the battle. Better to show a mix ofvaguely indicated fighting, a hint of arms and swords all thrown together, than finedetails of just a part of the army. In a real battle also, the impression one has of thewhole remains vague and blurred in the action of clashing men amidst the dust andmovements of the fight. We thus see only two rears of horses and the back of Joshuain some detail, the heads of two horses also, and this only because the light fallsdirectly on them.The sun stands in the middle of the sky, overpowering in brightness, like a suddenvision of Joshua, but low and ready to set. Joshua points his sword straight at it,commanding the sun to stand still so that the battle might linger on and so that theJews would be able to kill all their opponents. Joshua commands like a god andYahweh answers Joshua’s order. Thus, Courtois painted one of the rare scenes of theBible in which a man commands both the elements and God. And God complied.Jacques Courtois emphasised of course the epic of the scene. So he painted the battlelow in the frame, against a wide and low landscape as background (on the right) andwith a wonderful sky and fully coloured clouds. The low scene well renders Courtois’message that despite a heroic battle, man remains small in nature and before the Godof the skies. Only the finest soldier of Yahweh, Joshua, dominates the field.Courtois used for the earth and for the battle mostly brown and deep orange hues.These ochre colours are warm and Courtois helped the warm mood by painting huesinclining further to red towards the left side of the scene: Joshua’s cloak is red-brownand so is the large flag on the left. While Courtois brought in cooler hues also, below,a few blue patches and very white hues in the landscape on the very right, thepredominant ochres must have been meant to form an overall hue that well suitedwalls of a main hall of a Roman palace, like the Palazzo Spada where the paintinghangs now. Even Courtois’ sky gives a warm, open impression since he tempered theblue sky not only with the radiant bright yellow sun, but also with brown hues in theclouds.If the picture had to evoke a rapid impression of action and energy, Courtois alsodefined its structure to support this feeling. Slanting lines are always the lines ofmovement. So Courtois grew his scene from the lower right upwards. Very manylines of swords heaven, horses, and figures are slanting and also in various directions.Courtois’ scene grows to the left, upwards, and Courtois did not even position Joshuain the middle, but skewed his figure to the left, so that symmetries around Joshuacould not easily form. Such symmetries of shape, colours, balance of areas, wouldbring static and stability again in the picture, and fixed positions of figures. Courtoiswanted to avoid that above all.Copyright: René Dewil Date: October 2001