Some thoughts about ‘The Three Wise Men (Halt of the Wise Men)’ by John La Farge.
Origin: Advent in Art service, 9 December 2001, curated by Arthur Amon
Theme:
Art as above.
Mood:
Noisy
Setup:
See below for what was done at each station and what is required.
Gear:
Running order:
Introduction to painting:
There is a dim light in the painting, relieved only by the brightening on the horizon at left, and the reflected light on the Wise Men (especially the central figure).
This light could be the star or heavenly body they’re following, or it could be dawn’s first glow. The strangely twisted posture of the middle figure, plus the greenish horse with pink blaze (and to a lesser extent the black horse) give the painting a feeling of tension that is obviously never released. They all draw the eye to the light. A camel train winds across the vague shadowy middle. The composition is quite asymetrical, and the painting also contains broad areas of a similar colour; both elements are due to La Farge’s interest in Japanese art (see p.21 of La Farge book, details below). Brushstrokes are also clearly visible.
The figures are dressed simply, unlike many depictions of the wise men. Other figures are lost in the gloom, with the exception of the person holding the horse (who is seen only from behind), and the truncated figure on the right.
Light in paintings has often been used to represent God’s presence in nature, or the sublime. Here the light floods one corner, a significant force.
There is another tension in the painting that comes partly from our knowledge that this is a moment in a journey – an interruption or temporary pause; we know the goal hasn’t been reached and this incompletion cries out from the canvas
(Information based on John La Farge, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; National Museum of American Art; Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; Abbeville Press Publishers: New York. Page numbers below relate to this book.)
Station 1:
The wise men were real people on a real journey, following a vague heavenly sign (or certainly one that was open to interpretation). Think about your own journey towards Christ. What has kept you moving? Where are you at?
The quotes below are from Dave Andrews book ‘Christi-anarchy’ (Lion: Oxford, 1999)
You may like to ‘journey’ through the worship space as you reflect on this.
(Miscellaneous quotes…)
Station 2:
The Three Wise Men “was set on an identifiable ridge of the Paradise Hills, [Newport USA]. La Farge emulated the tonalities and painterly flourishes of two of his great heroes, Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Chassériau, attaining an animated integration of figure and landscape. This treatment recalls La Farge’s praise of the sense of movement in the works of Delacroix.” p.99
“Delacroix felt the unexpressed rule that the human being never moves free in space, but always, being an animal, in relation to the place where he is, to the people around him, to innumerable influences of light, and air, wind, footing, and the possibility of touching others. This is the absolute contradiction of the studio painting, however dignified, where the figure is free from any interruption, and nobody will run against it.” p.99
“Typically, The Three Wise Men… demonstrates La Farge’s habit of expressing ideal themes in naturalistic terms, setting the three kings in an identifiable Newport landscape.” p.174
Our journeys happen in ‘identifiable landscapes’; consider your own. What, if any, ideal themes are being played out in your landscape? (ie how does your life embody things beyond yourself in the place where you live?)
Reflect on this as you feel the wind (fan), the earth (a pile of dirt) and the water (in bowl)…
Station 3:
“[In La Farge’s later works, such as this one], the naturalism of the 1860s has given way to an elegance derived from the old masters. [He] did not so much abandon the careful observation of nature as subordinate all pictorial elements to decorative colours and painterly brushwork.” p.99
“La Farge deliberately chose scenes that were spare and unspectacular, which he painted with visible brushwork that freely discloses the artist’s touch.” p.21. In doing this he made explicit the artifact-ness of the painting.
God and others leave marks on us, and we leave marks on others and God.
Reflect on this as you add paint to the canvas.
Station 4:
‘I was not one man only…but the steady advance hour after hour of an army in close formation, in which there appeared, according to the moment, impassioned men, indifferent men, jealous men…In a composite mass, these elements may, one by one, without our noticing it, be replaced by others, which others again eliminate or reinforce, until in the end a change has been brought about which it would be impossible to conceive if it were a single person.’ (from translater’s introduction to ‘Of Grammatology’ by Jacques Derrida.)
Read the full version of T. S. Eliot’s poem (‘Journey of the Magi’). (It is on the wall and on small papers).
Journeys involve leaving things behind. These farewells are like a series of deaths. Light a candle in the sandtray for the things you’ve left behind, the versions of yourself that you’ve let go, or the new things to come.