Cursten Branden Lewis

Art and Scripture: A Dialogue on Desolation

The Course of Empire – Desolation Print Thomas Cole

Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
    and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
    though a person may be weighed down by misery.

Since no one knows the future,
    who can tell someone else what is to come?
As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
    so[a] no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
    so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

Ecclesiastes 8:5-8

What is Within the Fiery Altar?

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Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), Dream of Saint Mark (Pax Tibi Marce) (E&I 305) (c 1591), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy. Image by Didier Descouens, via Wikimedia Commons.

My Deific Instruction

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Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642), Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma – The Choice Between Virtue and Vice (1633), oil on panel, 142 x 210.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons.

The War of Ancients

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Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), The Last Supper (E&I 310) (1592-94), media and dimensions not known, Duomo, Lucca, Italy. Image by Mongolo1984, via Wikimedia Commons.

Arte e Spiritualità: Sant’Antonio Abate

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Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642), Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma – The Choice Between Virtue and Vice (1633), oil on panel, 142 x 210.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons.

The Wisdom of Understanding

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Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), The Last Supper (E&I 309) (1592-94), oil on canvas, 365 x 568 cm, Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy. Wikimedia Commons.

La Omnipotencia

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The Paradise by the Italian Renaissance painter Tintoretto (1518-1594 CE), commissioned for the Doge’s Palace n Venice. Completed 1588 CE.

Llamamiento de Realidad

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Hans Memling (c 1433–1494), The Last Judgment (panel from triptych) (1467-1471), oil on panel, 223 x 72 cm, Muzeum Narodowe w Gdańsku, Gdańsk. Wikimedia Commons.

The Eternal Truths: Insights from Scripture

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Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518-1594), The Archangel Michael in Combat with Lucifer (E&I 287) (1580s or early 1590s), oil on canvas, 318 x 220 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

So, then I told the servant of people that they should go first, for there are a lot of them. I told him to choose one of the goats and prepare it and call in the name of their God, but to not set fire to the wood. So, they prepared one of the goats and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of evil from morning until noon time, shouting, “Oh, master answer us!” But there was no reply; then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made at noontime. I began mocking them, “You’ll have to shout louder.” I scoffed, “For surely, he is a god, perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself or maybe he is away on a trip or is asleep and needs to be wakened.”

But you are less than nothing
    and your works are utterly worthless;
    whoever chooses you is detestable.

Isaiah 41:24

The Great Deceiver

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Featured image: Peter Paul Rubens – The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604-1605. Oil on canvas, 98.4 x 131.2 cm (38.7 x 51.6 in). The National Gallery of Art. Image via Creative Commons

Preparing to Conquest

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Unrecorded artist, Virgin of The Rosary of Pomata, c. 1730–60, oil on canvas with gold leaf applications (Pedro y Angélica de Osma Foundation)
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