I. To begin with, this paper will describe a piece of art painted by the Scottish artist by the name of Peter Howson. This culture was chosen, because I don’t believe I’ve ever met a Scottish person and would like to know a little about what they think about religion. I didn’t just choose one portrait, but a series of portraits that shows the journey of Christ to the cross. The name of this series is called, The Stations of the Cross, painted in 2003. “The resonant theme of this exhibition coincided with the artist’s own preoccupations; at the time Peter was recovering from a terrible period in his life, and his own journey from the depths of despair brought him to the harbor of Christian faith.” ( N.A., 2003) This shows that he understood …show more content…
Viewing this painting was an awe inspiring experience. One could almost feel the texture from the contours of the paint brush. The artist seemed to focus on the pain in the “Christ Like” image. The artist went to painstaking effort to illustrate the feeling of “suffering.” The pain is often illustrated differently at various viewpoints. For instance to look at the painting up close one could easily see that the brush strokes are harsh and deliberate. Whereas if one were to stand from a distance the brush strokes are hardly visible but yet the painting seems soft and delicate. The feelings that truly struck me the most was that of sheer empathy. It should also be noted that the eleven paintings all shared a commonality of pain and suffering but they all were different in their illustration of that pain. For instance the painting with the snake sent shivers down my spine due to the devilish nature of the snake. The snake seemed to take on a character of its own in its ability to be so innate but yet monolithic with its posture and symbolism. The snake stole the show in my view. That being said, the main figure was still overwhelming with utter pain and suffering. It is very interesting to observe the differences in the depiction of