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November 21st, 2020 
Awake Goy A personal selection of works by founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
In honour of truth I had in mind covering this artist for a long while but there were aspects about his art that prevented me from doing so, preferring to concentrate my attention on other artists which I found more akin to my taste. I suppose my “hesitation” was triggered by the fact that William Holman Hunt was a very religious man, a fact that to my personal judgment, is excessively reflected on his artworks. Suffice to say most of his best well-known works of art gravitate towards religious scenes, mostly taken from the Bible and similar stories, among these I should mention The Shadow of Death (1871), A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids (1910), The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1860), The Miracle of The Holy Fire (1899), May Morning on Magdalen Tower (1890), Christ and The Two Marys (1847 and 1897 versions) and most of all The Light of the World (1854) the latter being the painting that brought him fame and renown within artistic circles of the time.
I have refrained myself from adding these artworks to the gallery below (though the reader can click on the links to see each one of them) preferring Hunt’s most pastoral paintings, which I personally find much more valuable and interesting. I am specifically referring to three of his best non-religious works such as Amaryllis (1884), Awakening Conscience (1853) and most specially Miss Gladys M. Holman Hunt (1890) a superb hyper-realistic painting which makes one think what if William Holman Hunt had promoted more “the divine in the human” (as we can see in the face of this lady in deep contemplation as she draws) rather than concentrating so much on religious imagery. In spite of that I have found inevitable not to include some of his religious paintings, which I found interesting regardless.
Hunt is worth of a review not only for his amazing craftsmanship but also because he was one of the “founding fathers” of the Pre-Raphaelist Brotherhood or Pre-Raphaelite Movement (an entity which has been covered here at Renegade Tribune in many occasions) so much so that, according to Hunt himself, he was the one who put the idea of the brotherhood forward along with poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1848, also teaming up with John Everett Millais with whom Hunt sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth.
William Holman Hunt’s paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, according to whom the world itself should be read as a system of visual signs.
… a major turning-point for Hunt came in 1847 when he read the second volume of John Ruskin’s ‘Modern Painters’ and came upon his explanation of the way Tintoretto’s use of Biblical typology permeated painting which had realistic details with complex, integrated symbolism. This passage gave the young artist a solution to what he saw as the great artistic problem of the age: “Of all its readers none could have felt more strongly than myself that it was written for him” (Hunt 73). Hunt went to Millais and read him the passage, and both agreed later that this was the origin of Pre-Raphaelitism. – from William Holman Hunt: A Brief Biography by The Victorian Web.
William Holman Hunt -however- was a true Christian believer, so much so that at some point in his career, he decided to take a long trip to the “Holy Land”. According to The Victorian Web, by the mid-1850s…
Hunt set off a two-year visit to Syria and Palestine*, where he and fellow-artist Thomas Seddon were profoundly impressed by the experience of seeing Jerusalem, and where he began painting his iconic canvas, The Scapegoat, on the shores of the Dead Sea. It was completed in Jerusalem in June 1855, and would be exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856. The trip was fraught with perils (even the goat fell sick and died), and it was hard to get suitable models to pose for other paintings, such as his masterpiece, The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1854-60).
* Notice that The Victorian Web refers to the place were ‘The Scapegoat’ was painted as “Palestine” (and rightly so) instead of calling it “The Holy land” as wikipedia does. Just a curious tidbit.
Painted between 1854 (first version) and 1856 Hunt’s masterpiece The Scapegoat depicts the “scapegoat” described in the Book of Leviticus. On the “Day of Atonement”, a goat would have its horns wrapped with a red cloth which represented the “sins of the community” then the poor animal would be driven off into the wilderness to meet its death. I ignore if Hunt was trying to make the viewer feel some compassion for the goat as its face seems almost to show a sort of “human quality” in it. Also noticeable is the fact that we can see the animal itself surrounded by the remnants of its hapless predecessors in the background. Curiously enough Hunt chose this subject, which is derived from the Torah, as part of a project to “convert Jews to Christianity” (good luck with that, sir!).
“I am sanguine that [the Scapegoat] may be a means of leading any reflecting Jew to see a reference to the Messiah as he was, and not as they understand, a temporal King.” – ‘John Everett Millais: A Biography’ by G.H. Fleming (1998) p.158.
Needless to say that I personally find this “scapegoating” ritual totally abhorrent, not only for being an act of cruelty against a sentient animal, but also for what it represents. It goes without saying that people should be responsible for their own actions regardless of how burdensome they might be, it is all a question of character. The act of projecting one’s “sins” onto an animal in order to either kill it or let it die (along with one’s “projected sins”) is not only a sign of cowardliness but it is also a deed that brings more evil to this world rather than sparing the world of anyone’s sins. As far as I am concerned “scapegoating” (or any similar ritual for that matter) should be considered an act of “black magic”.
In order not to make this article too long I have decided to link William Holman Hunt’s brief biography from the Victorian Web here for those who might be interested in knowing a little bit more about this remarkable artist. All in all I hope people appreciate some of these artworks as much as I do, in spite of it all. Comments will be welcomed.
Sources: The Victorian Web, wikipedia, archive.org
Thanks to my first donor ever at SubscribeStar
Selected Works
Portraits of William Holman Hunt by other artists
Seemingly a celebrity within artistic circles of the time. Was William Holman Hunt one of the most portrayed painters -by other painters- ever? It is possible. Here I include a brief selection of artworks, some of them quite stunning.
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