The Painting About Prodigal Son, Research Paper Example

The artwork involved the painting of a specific story which is famous in the Holy Bible. The painting brought out the story in the Bible in a very good manner to prove the story. There was a visual in his painting to illustrate the story.

The dimensions and artwork details

The artwork was classified as a type of print as it was the original publication of the artist named above. The lithograph was used as the medium in the artwork. It was a specific printmaking process where a specific design of the content of the representation of the story of the prodigal son was well-drawn onto a flat stone. It then was joined together through a chemical reaction. The medium was chosen because it was the actual artwork of the artist without any duplication, which was done through the use of water and oil. The work was done on a sheet of the actual size of 12, third eighth by sixteen.

The measurement was equivalent to thirty-one-point four multiplied by forty-two point nine-centimeters (Campbell, 1970). The image viewable was size ten on a measurement of one-eighth by thirteen. The actual inch of the artwork visual was twenty-five point seven by thirty-three points five centimeters. The actual edition was two hundred and fifty. George Miller printed the artwork, and the actual publication was by various artists from America. The work took place at the Museum of Art, known as Whitney, located in New York. The Vaga Artists’ rights in the city gave out permission to the artwork in a license.

The visual elements in the painting

There was the application of the Aesthetic types of qualities which were the main contents of the painting. The qualities included the coloration, the resonance related to emotions, a simple painting that anybody could understand, lighting which was illuminative and expressive, and the various components. Through the actual making of the painting, there was a viewpoint that the viewers would be able to realize the deep thought of the event in the story. There was the painting that took place of the visual (Campbell, 1970).

The painting indicated the process, which was very innovative, which indicated that the specific piece of artwork was from the Bible itself. The painting was religious-based and indicated the existence of human beings and the sufferings that humans pass through in life. It indicated how the great sinners go before the Lord to apologize for their sins (Campbell, 1970). The endowment of the painting with a lot of tragedy-related content brought about the point that it was a tangible symbol of the importance that could cover up everything. The figures used in the painting were not simple, but they were complex figures indicating that the prodigal son was in total anguish. It was a good symbol of lament, love which had no boundaries, the aspect of contrition, and the aspect of charity (Campbell, 1970). Any viewer could be able to be filled with moods that were spiritually related, and the aspect of compassion was the main specialization area in the painting. To show regret and humbleness before his father, the artist painted the two arms of a man who wanted only to see his son. It symbolized the heart of accepting and having the feeling to help all those in total darkness.

The argument in the Bible story

Benton had read the Bible in the New Testament to come up with the story of the parable of the son of the prodigal. The artist had the best retelling in his painting artwork. The story was like this. It was a story of a very young boy who left his father’s home and went outside to try and seek settlement after they were not on good terms with his father. The young man had initially told his father to give him all his belongings, and the father counted all the belongings and gave the son before leaving.

The son went to the world where he wasted all the belongings shared with him by the father by using the wealth in an elegant manner (Campbell, 1970). After everything was finished, the son had no other option but to come back home and try his luck by being humble and apologetic to the father. Over many centuries, the story has cycled as the best example of forgiveness which has no limits.

As the boy comes back home while battered with life and without anything, the father warmly welcomes the son back home with a good heart. In this painting which explored the story in the Bible, the young man’s return was late. The artist in his painting was able to illustrate the actual experiences with specific events which could not be controlled by any given man (Campbell, 1970). It was a clear indication of how the view of the various conditions in the Midwest in the 1930s and the 1940s looked like.

Relating the artwork

The artwork can be interconnected with impressionism, which was a movement that was historically related to art. The movement had been improvised in France during the nineteenth century. It was a big artwork that involved putting paints on doors rather than in the various studios. There were several subjects based upon this kind of painting. There was the indication of the various scenes which happened in daily life and the various landscapes. Comparing the painting in the movement with the artwork of the story of the prodigal son in the Bible, there was a lot of improvement that needed to be worked on.

As the painting has used, the artwork on the bible story could have used the aspect of capturing the effects that were transient of the sunlight through fast working. The method could have been much better than the act of studio painting (Campbell, 1970). By avoiding studio painting, there could be a much greater color and light-related awareness and the pattern which was shifted through the scene, which was natural. The story of the prodigal son would have applied the brushwork, which would have been broken and be made rapid into the various dabs to render a specific light quality that would have been fleeting. Through this adjustment, the artwork would have become much more decent and attracted many viewers who would have felt that the story of the prodigal son had been well represented.

Conclusion

The painting represented the happenings of the young man who had come back home to ask for forgiveness from his father. The artwork has been clearly illustrated as described in the essay and as per the visual described below. The visual clearly shows the young man returning home, having surrendered the hard life he went through of even living with the pigs. The visual is a clear representation of the whole story about the young man. The artwork will live to have many viewers even in the future inside the museum. The believers will always be portraying the main content of the illustrated bible story any time they visit the museum and get to see the painting. The visual below is the visual representation of the artwork.

Reference

Campbell, Colin. “Rembrandt’s Polish Rider and the Prodigal Son.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 33.1 (1970): 292-303.