Satan : Le Péché : La Mort

This painting, titled "Satan and Death with Sin Interfering" or "Satan : Le Péché : La Mort" in German, was painted by John Henry Fuseli, or Johann Heinrich Fussli in Germany. He painted this in 1779 after a lifetime of immigrating.

Fussli was originally born in Switzerland the second of eighteen and was always intended for the church. His father had produced many writings on the Christian painters of the day and because of this expected his firstborn son to attain the same level of fame as those that he wrote about. Fussli failed his father's dream when he outed a corrupt magistrate and was expelled from Switzerland. After a pilgrimage to Italy he changed his name to Fuseli began painting Christian-inspired artwork. He felt slighted and disillusioned by the large religion, so he began painting with Satan and nightmare-ish creatures as his subjects.

This painting depicts Satan and Death collaborating over what to do with human souls and in between them is Sin, which can be seen in the woman with the green snake. This painting is meant to be dark and evil in nature, with the hope found in the Sin. I think that was unexpected by me because I usually don't think of sin as a good idea, but in this picture it is the only thing that can redeem humans from their hellish fate. Fuseli often saw humans as perpetually doomed until they are redeemed by the absolving of their sins and for that reason actually found comfort in this picture.

Samaritan Woman at the Well

This painting is called "Samaritan Woman at the Well" and was created during the T'ang dynasty between 618 and 907 CE by an unknown artist for the court. During this time China was extremely open to foreigners and received many Christians. Because of the Christian influence in this region that was concentrated due to this openness, some citizens of the Chinese nation were converted and produced works of art like this.

The reason I found this interesting is because I've always seen Christianity as a very Western religion that had little to no influence on the Far East until as late as the 20th century or so. To learn about paintings that have been around for this long makes sense, what with the spice trade, but I just hadn't ever thought of the spread as going that quickly.

Our Lady of Pomata from Pomata, Peru

This small painting is the most famous depiction of the Lady of Pomata, a woman said to protect the town of Pomata, Peru. It was painted between 1700 and 1750 by an unknown local artist, though why the painting is famous dates before it's origin. Peru was ruled by the Inca until 1530 when Spanish conquistadors began their trek into South America. With them came a very firm faith in Catholicism that they instilled in the Incan population. For the two hundred years between this conquest and the painting Peru was a colony of Spain, which induced a fusion in European and Latin styles that resulted in more formally created artwork than what was typical of the native culture.

I found this painting to be interesting because of the format. Unlike many Incan works of art, this one has structured the subjects into a hierarchy of importance. I think this appears more European than is typical of a Latin painting. The romanticized flowers and the woman's dress seem extremely different from the utilitarian artwork the Incan created in a worship setting. For this reason, I found this painting to be almost like a European painting what he saw in his environment than a native Incan painting the Lady of the town for religious purposes.