Saturday, April 26, 2008

He Qi, Abraham and Three Angels

He Qi, Abraham and Three Angels
Based on Genesis 18
(Image from Christianity Today)

I'm a bit pressed for time this morning, but I always blog faithfully about something, so I give you this fine, rainy morning an image of golden light, "Abraham and Three Angels, based on Genesis 18," from a slideshow of Old Testament scenes painted by the Chinese artist He Qi (pronounced huh-chee) that Christianity Today has made available through an article on this contemporary artist.

Here's what the slideshow says about the image above:
Abram and Sarai stand in the darkness of their tent, about to serve their mysterious guests. He Qi's depiction of the three faceless angels -- with three feet among them -- is reminiscent of iconic depictions of the Trinity. He portrays their spiritual essence by the near-iridescence of their clothing and the light that glows upward on their faces. ("Slideshow Image Nr. 2," from Susan Wunderink, "The Dragon in the Belly: Patriarchs, Judges, and Kings," Christianity Today, April 2008)
Wunderink notes the evocation of the Trinity in this image, and regular readers will recall my series of blog entries on Trinitarian icons of this very scene. Alexander Boguslawski has written on this very theme, as I've also reported.

See you tomorrow.

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2 Comments:

At 8:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This image could easily be mis-interpreted. For instance, the lecherous Abe could have been offering love apples (or pomegranates)to a trio of dancing girls, thus explaining only one foot per houri.....meanwhile Sarai is looking with askance on her husband making such advances in her presence. Perhaps the faceless trio were seeking anonymity.
And this ends my pathetic attempt at light humor.
Cran

 
At 11:42 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Yes, if that student on a previous blog entry can so misinterpret the Bible's fairly clear words, imagine how easily one can misinterpret the thousand ambiguous words of an image!

Jeffery Hodges

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