Three Spiritual Dramas:
Transcendence on Canvas
Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in Ecstasy, 1485
Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm--The Oxbow, 1836.
Mark Rothko, Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue, 1953
The American Renaissance in the mid-19th century continues to enthrall students studying American Literature. They seeem particularly drawn to the Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and that interest in romantic idealism offers an opportunity to explore visual equivalents in the luminous landscapes painted in the Hudson River School tradition. The concept of a transcendence rooted in a spiritual philosophy often seems elusive when the students, many of whom seem thoroughly secular, encounter it in essays and stories, a complication that further argues for turning to other representations. Thomas Cole's "View from Mount Holyoke," painted less than 20 miles from Deerfield Academy, allows students to sense the spiritual quality in nature.
The painting also creates a counterpoise between the narrative art that preceded it and the abstract forms that were soon to follow. To that end, a discussion of three paintings from different centuries that attempt to convey a transcendent moment perhaps will allow students to understand the similarities and differences in artistic expression.
Along with viewing the paintings, students may find the following remarks helpful in fashioning their responses.
St. Francis
"An ecstatic communion of St. Francis with God in nature. Not even Antonello da Messina could have constructed a picture of such grandeur or carried our eyes (as can in reality be done only on days of ringing clarity) through luminous air of such brilliance, or through so perfectly controlled a succession of distances" (373).
Hartt, Frederick. History of Italian Renaissance Art. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1975. 373."Landscape does more than provide the saintly protagonist with an appropriate setting, however: landscape is a second protagonist of Bellini's composition, as expressive of God's presence as the explicitly supernatural rays of light. Not only those golden shafts but the diffuse naturalistic light that illuminates the scene confirms God's presence in every particle of his creation. Bellini's mastery of light and atmosphere conveys this faith with ardor and conviction, and landscape is immeasurably more important in this regard than the specific symbolism of the individual objects, although these too play their part" (111).
Goffen, Rona. Giovanni Bellini. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.View from Mount Holyoke
"One of Cole's favorite themes was pastoral, Arcadian America beset by storms. They pass, but their presence suggests impending change in the world....Now that the storm has passed, our eyes can move out to the horizon, into infinite light: the American promise" (145-147).
Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997."In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed....In the woods, we return to reason and faith.... Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,--all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature 1836Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue
"I think of my pictures as dramas; the shapes in the pictures are the performers....Neither the action nor the actors can be anticipated, or described in advance. They begin as an unknown adventure in an unknown space. It is at the moment of completion that in a flash of recognition, they are seen to have the quantity and function which was intended....The most important tool the artist fashions through constant practice is faith in his ability to produce miracles when they are needed. Pictures must be miraculous: the instant one is completed, the intimacy between the creation and the creator is ended. He is an outsider. The picture must be for him, as for anyone experiencing it later, a revelation, an unexpected and unprecedented resolution of an eternally familiar need."
Possibilities, No.1, Winter 1947/8, 84. Mark Rothko. London: The Tate Gallery, 1986.Possible Discussion Issues:
- How do you initially see each painting?
- Compare and contrast the use of details.
- What does the luminous quality in each painting suggest?
- How are imagery and symbolism used?
- Can you detect any specific cultural references?
- What compositional principles are used? How is the space divided? How are figures grouped? Does the artist use contrasts?
- Do the paintings elicit similar emotional and intellectual responses?
- Does each painting suggest the transcendent moment? How?
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