"THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8103, 24 March 1906, Page 3

"THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD."

WHAT IS ITS iSTORY? No picture in Australia, for many years, has drawn sach . crowds ag those which every afternoon stand silent before Holman Hunt's great picture of "The Xiight of the World," in the Melbourne Art Gallery. The pioture will be shown in all the capital cities of Australia and New Zealand, and will create as much interest, no doubt, wherever it is shown, as it is doing in Melbourne, flow did it come to be painted, and what does the artist intend to convey by it? We are able to answer both questions, the latter in the artist's own words. *1 HOW THE PIOTURE WAS IN•V SPIKED. "Hunt and Millais were on a painting visit at Worcester Park Farm, near Surbiton, in 1851. Autumn was far advanced. One night, after dinner, Millais ffas bantering a friend whom he wißhed to cure of his 'monkish nonsense.' When this visitor went off to bed, Millais came up to see what Hunt was sketcning. He put his hand on his friend's shoulder: 'I say, whatever is that you are doing?' Hunt repled: 'I was on the point of explaining to you; there is a text in Revelation, "Behold I stand at the door and knock." Nothing is.said about the night, but I wish to acoentuate . the point of its meaning by making it a time of darkness, and that brings us to the need of the lantern in Christ's baud, He being the L Bearer of the light to the sinner within, if he will awaken. I shall have a door choked up with weeds, to show that it has not been opened for a long time; and in the background there will be an orchard (I can paint it from the one at the side of this house).' 'What a noble subject!' Millais cried. 'I will tell you what I'll do. I'll at once make a companion design of the sinner with the door opened, falling at Christ's feet.' Two nights later he showed Hunt a sketch of 'The Repentant Sinner,' Then his friend felt it necessary to protest: 'One strong interest in my design depends on the uncertainty as to whether the being within will ie'spond; your pioture would destroy all this. Besides, as you paint with greater facility than I do, your subject would be done first, and perhaps exhibited before, mine, and thus the possible effect of Christ's appeal would be presented before the cause of it were understood; this would be confusing, and would give I the impression that I was cojpying r your idea.' Millais saw that Hunt was right, and left him to his glorious subject." Here is Holman Hunt's own interpretation of 'the picture:—'The closed door is the obstinately shut mind, the weeds the cumber of daily neglect, the accumulated hindrances of sloth; tne orchard the garden of delectable fruit for the dainty feast of the soul. The music of the still, small voice is !jhe summons to the sluggard to awaken and become a zealous labourer under the Divine Master; the bat flitting about only in darkness is a natural symbol of ignorance; the kingly and priestly dress of Christ, the sign of His reign over the body and the soul, to them who could give their allegiance to Him, and aoknowledge God's over-rule. In making it a night scene, lit mainly by the lantern carried by Christ, 1 followed the metaphorical explanation in the Psalms. 'Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light onto my path,' with also the accordant allusions by St. Paul to the sleeping soul, 'The night is far -spent, the day is at hand.' ' —Life.