The Light of the World
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- For the film, see The Light of the World (film). For the oratorio, see The Light of the World (Sullivan). For the religious organisation see La Luz del Mundo.
The Light of the World (1853–4) is an allegorical painting by William Holman Hunt representing the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door, symbolic of the human conscience.[1] The scriptural basis for this concept can be found in Revelation 3:19-21: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me". According to Hunt: "I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be by Divine command, and not simply as a good subject."[2] It has sometimes been remarked that the door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore only be opened from the inside.
The painting was Hunt's most famous and successful work and was toured around the world. The original, painted in the parish of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Ewell, is now in a side room off the large chapel at Keble College, Oxford. Hunt painted a large copy towards the end of his life, which is now in St Paul's Cathedral, London.
This painting inspired Salvation Army composer, the Late Commissioner Sir Dean Goffin to compose one of his most famous pieces also entitled "The Light of the World", and Arthur Sullivan to compose his 1873 oratorio The Light of the World.
[edit] References
- ^ The Victorian Web
- ^ Forbes, C (2001), "Images of Christ In Nineteenth-Century British Paintings In The Forbes Magazine Collection", Magazine Antiques, December 2001.
[edit] Further reading
- Maas, Jeremy (1984). Holman Hunt and the Light of the World. Ashgate. ISBN 9780859676830.
