''The Shadow of Death'' is a religious painting by

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. ...

, on which he worked from 1870 to 1873, during his second trip to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Ho ...

. It depicts

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

as a young man prior to his ministry, working as a carpenter. He is shown stretching his arms after sawing wood. The shadow of his outstretched arms falls on a wooden spar on which carpentry tools hang, creating a "shadow of death" prefiguring the

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Cartha ...

. His mother Mary is depicted from behind, gazing up at the shadow, having been looking into a box in which she has kept the gifts given by the

Magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...

Background and interpretation

In 1850 Hunt's colleague

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest s ...

had already portrayed Jesus as a budding carpenter, helping his father as a young boy. Millais' painting, '' Christ in the House of his Parents'', had been viciously attacked by critics because of the alleged squalour of the workshop. Hunt repeats many features of Millais's painting, but emphasises Jesus' physical health and muscularity. Hunt's portrayal of Jesus as a hard-working adult craftsman and labourer was also probably influenced by

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, ...

who repeatedly emphasised the spiritual value of honest labour. It also corresponds to the emergence of

Muscular Christianity Muscular Christianity is a philosophical movement that originated in England in the mid-19th century, characterized by a belief in patriotic duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, masculinity, and the moral and physical beauty of athleticism. The mov ...

, the view of writers

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the workin ...

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 182222 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel '' Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended ...

and others, who promoted physical strength and health as well as a vigorous pursuit of Christian ideals in personal and political life. Carlyle had strongly criticised Hunt's earlier depiction of Jesus in '' The Light of the World'', identifying it as a "papistical" picture because it showed Jesus in regal clothing. The portrayal of Mary's thriftiness (by carefully "saving" the gifts) also fits the emphasis on working class financial responsibility promoted by contemporary evangelical publications such as ''The British Workman''. The painting contains detailed

typological Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...

symbolism, referring to the theological significance of Christ's role and identity. This may be related to Millais's contemporaneous '' Victory O Lord!''.

Exhibition

The painting was a popular success and was widely reproduced as an engraving. The profits made possible the donation of the original to the city of Manchester in 1883. It is now held by

Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

. Diarist

Francis Kilvert Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 184023 September 1879), known as Francis or Frank, was an English clergyman whose diaries reflected rural life in the 1870s, and were published over fifty years after his death. Life Kilvert was born on 3 ...

describes a visit to see the painting on display in 1874, the year after its completion. His entry for 27 June 1874 reads, "I regret to say that against good advice and wise warning I went to see Holman Hunt's picture of the Shadow of Death. It was a waste of a good shilling. I thought the picture theatrical and detestable and wished I had never seen it." In 1913

Lillian Williamson Lillian Forrester ( Williamson; born 1879) was a British suffragette who led an attack on the Manchester Art Gallery. Life She was born Lillian Williamson in 1879, and was the second daughter of Arthur Williamson, a commercial clerk, and Eliza ...

led an attack on the

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three ...

. She, Evelyn Manesta and Annie Briggs waited until the gallery was closing and then proceeded to break the glass on many of the most valuable paintings in including the "Shadow of Death", two by

and two by

George Frederick Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for hi ...

. Staff were alerted by the sound of broken glass and the three were apprehended. Williamson was sentenced to three months in prison.

Versions

Hunt also painted a small-scale version of the composition in 1873. Hunt expert Judith Bronkhurst describes it as "harder and crisper in appearance than the Manchester painting". It was sold for £1.8 million in 1994, which at that time was the highest price paid for a Pre-Raphaelite painting.Bronkhurst, Judith, ''William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonné'', Yale University Press, 2005, p. 232. It is held in

Leeds Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

References

External links

*
The Shadow of Death
' in the Manchester Art Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow of Death, The Paintings by William Holman Hunt 1873 paintings Paintings depicting Jesus Paintings of the Virgin Mary Collection of Manchester Art Gallery