One Way To Spend Your Time While Visiting An Art Museum

I recommend that when you visit a familiar museum, you take time to randomly select one work and spend 30 minutes with it.  Let it speak to you.  It will take you to so many places and leave you very satisfied by the journey.

Today, at the National Gallery of Art here in DC, I did this with "Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon," 1816, by artist John Martin (1789-1854).  I was first aware of this artist during a visit to the National Gallery in London back in 2002.  He paints dramatic, energetic, monumental canvases with Biblical themes.  He is very imaginative.

We live in a world over stimulated by images.  I think that 1816 was probably a simpler time in general to the point that it would be difficult for me to even imagine.  So the first thing I think is that this guy had one mother fucking amazing imagination.  I'm 52 and I've never seen a sky like that.  Have you?  He was only 27 when he painted this canvas.

Look at how he encapsulates his ideas.  It's a Biblical theme through the lens of 19th century enlightenment.  He divides the canvas in two--the darkness on the right, and light on the left.

 Here is the shining city, build upon the ruins of antiquity.  You see images of medieval castles, the acropolis, even a pyramid.  All are just foundations for the ultimate city awash in the light of heaven and the blessings of God.

 Streaming from the gates of civilization is an army most ordered and uniform.  The army is the epitome of discipline, yet expressing a confidence and an excitement for the battle to come and the victory most assured.  Note also that the battle with evil requires the brave army to travel down into the valley--the valley of death for some.

Don't you also just love the detail given to the lone knight on the white steed?  A soldier even points him out to us, just in case we fail to discover him in the midst of the monumental painting.  Was John Martin trying to say, "Hey, check this out!  I'm a pretty damn good painter!"?

When I was a kid, I loved to doodle; ergo, the lower right corner of the painting and the battle makes me think that John Martin did, too.  What patience it must have taken to create the image of this battle with it's thousands and thousands of combatants.   We have the luxury of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy...what did 27-year-old John Martin in 1816 have?  An amazing imagination!