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Fleeing from danger and seeking refuge
are life situations unfortunately faced by human beings today
just as they were a thousand years ago. Wars, natural disasters,
poverty or various causes of persecution are tragic situations
that have been present throughout history. They are described
by the oldest works of literature. Among those works, those
which are part of the foundations of European culture undoubtedly
include the Bible, which deals with these themes in several
places. Since time immemorial people afflicted with a similar
fate found in them a parallel to their own lot in life and
found hope and consolation in their symbolic meaning. People
became familiar with these stories not only in biblical texts,
but also e.g. in the period guides to the Holy Land or Antiquities
of the Jews by Josephus Flavius. The creative arts have captured
them since early Christian times - they were shown metaphorically
and in an epic manner, following the rules of each period's
artistic trends. Biblical events were shown in frescoes and
paintings as well as book illuminations. The creation of pictorial
types of the individual stories was significantly influenced
by graphics - wood and copperplate engravings and etchings
which accompanied the editions of the Old and New Testaments.
If we follow the Old Testament, then the first exiles were
Adam and Eve, expelled from the Garden of Eden (First Book
of Moses, 3:23-24). In the oldest masterpieces the event is
shown with only scant details of the environment and the figures'
general gestures as a relatively static scene within which
the naked original parents are expelled by an angel. For example,
in 1379 Master Bertram depicted the Expulsion from Paradise
this way in the inner panel of the Grabow Altar (Hamburg,
Kunsthalle). It was not until the Renaissance that this theme
acquired deeply individual tragic features. The Florentine
painter Tommaso Guidi di Ser Giovanni di Mone, known as Masaccio,
(1401 - 1428?) was one of the first artists who gave biblical
scenes the character of a real event. In a fresco in the church
of Sta Maria del Carmine in Florence he depicted the expulsion
of Adam and Eve from Paradise as an expulsion of two human
beings from their home; with fervent realism he depicted Eve's
lamentations, Adam's sorrow and the awareness of guilt in
the dimension of an individual act, experienced through the
senses. In earlier periods artists enriched the topic by depicting
the landscape of Eden and emphasising the beauty of God's
Creation, forever lost for both exiles. This tradition was
continued by Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1593 - 1667), a contemporary
of Rembrandt and one of the few Dutch artists who devoted
themselves to this topic. After living in Florence and Rome
for several years, he saw the Italian landscape as synonymous
with paradise. In a small cabinet picture intended for the
decoration of a city interior he combined the depiction of
an idyllic hilly landscape with the figures of the fleeing
Adam and Eve, expelled by cherubims (Amsterdam, Rijks-museum;
Vienna, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der Bildenden Künste).
Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) approached
the topic in a completely different manner. In his study for
a ceiling painting for a Jesuit church in Antwerp he gave
it a new dimension, emphasising the tragic features of the
expulsion with hyperbole in both shape and meaning. Using
very quick brush strokes, he made an outline of the escape
of both figures, seen from an unusual angle, as if from the
depth of an abyss into which the fugitives were about to fall.
It seems that they are leaving their heavenly home in the
midst of a windstorm. They are driven by a cherub, holding
a flaming sword, into the arms of a skeleton that reminds
viewers of the fact that from that moment human life is finite
(Prague, National Gallery). In contrast, the painter Johann
Carl Loth (1632 - 1698), a German working in Italy, focused
fully on the silent expression of both protagonists, on showing
the deep sorrow and regret with which they resignedly face
their fate (Jindøichùv Hradec Chateau, Czech Republic). Eden,
the original home of the first people, seemed to be lost forever.
However, human beings have always tried to find it a new in
this transient world. For example, 16th century educated humanists
were astonished to find the qualities of Eden in the variety
of nature, in its original and cultivated form. A cultivated
renaissance garden became a reliable place of refuge, a synonym
of paradise regained. It contributed to the atmosphere of
a home and its everyday security, and was seen as a symbol
of endless Divine Grace.
In another part of the Old Testament
Abraham's nephew Lot loses his home under different circumstances.
With his wife and daughters he flees the conflagration with
which God punished the wicked city of Sodom. (First Book of
Moses, 19:1-29). The flight of Lot, urged on by an angel,
was depicted by medieval illuminators, but also with great
interest by modern artists. For example, in 1602 Dutch painter
Pieter Schoubroeck (active between 1586 and 1608) depicted
the characters with emphasis on the broad epic aspects of
the story (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister). Some time
later the story was painted by Peter Paul Rubens; in line
with his artistic focus he developed the pathos of the dramatic
event and the horror of the destructive fire (Paris, Louvre).
Of course, modern painting also drew the idea of escape
from fire from literary sources other than biblical stories.
Virgil's Aeneid offered a similar pictorial depiction; in
its own way it was a parallel to the burning of Sodom. Like
Lot escaping Sodom, Virgil's hero Aeneas and his family flee
from Troy, conquered and set on fire by Greek warriors. Pieter
Schoubroeck depicted this scene too as a painter's story with
a crowd of extras in the foreground and the silhouette of
the burning city, whose palaces, cathedrals and bridges are
consumed by fire. (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). Around
1600 the scene was depicted by Adam Elsheimer (1578 - 1610),
a German painter working in Rome. in contrast to Schoubroeck,
Elsheimer draws viewers directly into the middle of the night
(Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek).
In the foreground - as if within reach of his hand - the viewer
sees a crowd of escaping fugitives. Half hidden in the darkness,
half illuminated by the fire, Aeneas flees, carrying his elderly
father Anchises, following his wife Creusa and son Iulus.
Here the mythical scene has acquired the character of a real
event. And indeed, the people and artists of that time undoubtedly
had such irreplaceable experiences of their own. In 17th century
Dutch painting scenes of exodus from a burning city reflected
life experience. This is evidenced by, for example, works
by the Rotterdam painter Egbert van der Poel (1621 - 1664),
an artist who witnessed the tragic explosion of the powder
mill in Delft in 1654 and who became famous for his depictions
of night fires with fleeing inhabitants (Prague, National
Gallery).
The exodus of the Jews from Egyptian slavery and their many
years' wandering to the Promised Land under Moses' leadership
was a synonym for the journey to freedom. It offered several
scenes which were attractive for the visual arts. Two events
from the cycle were most frequently depicted: the Israelites
crossing the Red Sea (Second Book of Moses, 14:9-31) and Moses
getting water from a rock in the desert (Second Book of Moses,
17:4-6). Both scenes had already appeared in old Christian
monuments, e.g. 5th century mosaics in the S. Maria Maggiore
church in Rome. Along with other scenes of the Jewish exodus
they were also depicted in later periods. For example, the
Venetian painter Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, (1518
- 1594) painted Moses refreshing exhausted and turbulent crowds
of people with water from the rock in a dramatic composition
which is part of the decoration of Scuola San Rocco in Venice.
The French painter Nicolas Poussin turned to the Jewish exodus
between 1633 and 1636, when he made two dynamic paintings
of these scenes showing the excited movement and pathetic
gestures of the pilgrims, pursuing freedom with confidence
in Moses' strength. (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria;
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland). Poussin's paintings,
made in Rome, influenced younger generations of Italian artists.
However, Old Testament themes also soon grew in importance
in the areas north of the Alps, especially in the Netherlands.
There, biblical stories found a special meaning in relation
to contemporary events. The protracted war with Spain led
to mass emigration, especially in Antwerp, and these or similar
Old Testament stories provided support and hope for émigrés
during a difficult time. They were also reflected in the choice
of themes in contemporary painting. Protestant theologians
of the time recommended, as Martin Luther had done, that scenes
from the Old Testament be used to decorate homes instead of
paintings with themes from antiquity. The Antwerp painter
Frans Francken II (1581 - 1641), for example, tried to meet
the new requirements in smaller painting in which he gave
a sober account of the crowds of Israelites gathered in the
rocky desert, setting out on a journey through the dried up
Red Sea basin under the protection of the divine cloud, or
transporting, in single file, Joseph's coffin or the Ark of
the Covenant to the Promised Land (e.g. Munich, Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlungen; Brauschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum;
Heidelberg, Kurpfälzisches Museum). In the religiously tolerant
northern Netherlands, which was the most popular destination
and refuge for exiles, such pieces of art acquired a completely
new mission in many respects. Those who commissioned the paintings
- representatives of municipalities, towns and various social
institutions - imposed completely different requirements on
the artists than in other countries. The theme of flight and
salvation became a moral appeal, an example of one's own critical
situation and the hope of a positive solution. In monumental
form, such paintings were used on public municipal premises
as exempla virtutis - examples of virtue - worth following
in one's everyday life. Very often they mirrored specific
social situations and the Old Testament heroes were identified
with the political leaders of the period. For example, the
Leiden painter Isaak van Schwanenburgh (1538 - 1613) made
two paintings for the Leiden town hall on the theme of Pharaoh
in the Red Sea and The Israelites in the Desert, (Second Book
of Moses, 14:27-28). Both paintings reminded the inhabitants
of the periods of hardship and famine during the siege of
Leiden and of its liberation in 1574. The attached verses
compare the fate of the Calvinist city's inhabitants to the
fate of the Israelites in the desert and their journey to
the Promised Land. Similarly, in 1613 a painting of a historical
event was installed in the Venlo town hall, Uprising in the
Town of Venlo in 1511, which simultaneously depicted the scene
of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. The participants of
the uprising drew courage for the present from this biblical
material. In an orphanage in the town of Culemborg (Kuilenborg),
paintings called Collection of Manna (Fourth Book of Moses,
11:28-35) and Finding of the Spring (Fourth Book of Moses,
20:10-11) served as a moral appeal to the wards and were supposed
to contribute to the success of their upbringing. The Dutch
identified with the fate of the Israelites described in the
Old Testament, they considered themselves to be the "new children
of Israel" and they saw the new republic of the Netherlands
as the Promised Land, confident that they would find their
lost freedom here.
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