A visual Journey into the Bible - Theartofpainting.be

The Deuteronomy Page: 28 / 334balance and counterweight of colours. Bourdon’s painting stood already at the top ofthe learning curve even though it is a seventeenth century picture. The marvel of sucha complex, sophisticated, geometric and logical design is that in a viewer unaware ofthe design, the picture can inspire immediate emotion. Who would not be touched bycompassion for the resigned and determined innocent young girl, for the torturedfather who tears his clothes in oriental show of passionate misery? Who would not betouched by the outcry of the weeping women? But this was all for the greater glory ofYahweh and the pleas and the sadness rise with the smoke of the altar. The glory ofvictory at war symbolised by the ancient Roman emblems of its legions in the upperright, mean only torment and despair for the women on the left.Sébastien Bourdon’s work thus plays on the viewer’s feelings and on his mind. Very,very few painters reached this mastery of their medium.Other Paintings:Jephtah’s Daughter. Giuseppe Bazzani. Musée du Louvre – Paris. Before 1769.Jephtah’s Daughter. Peter Candid (Peter de Wittre) (ca. 1548-1628). AltePinakothek – Munich.Copyright: René Dewil Date: October 2001