Farewell Andrew Wyeth

It was announced just yesterday that celebrated American painter Andrew Wyeth has passed at the age of 91. Wyeth was indeed a fine painter, though I confess to being more an admirer of his father, N. C. Wyeth. I would love to take a trip to Delaware sometime to visit the Brandywine Museum, home to many works by the Wyeths and a good many other fine artists and illustrators.

Dominion

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, over every creeping that that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:26-28 (AV)

My goal in posts under this topical heading will be to muse upon and to explore the relationship between the arts and mankind's original calling by God to exercise dominion over the earth. In order to get to the place where we can discover various ways in which this applies to the arts specifically, it will be helpful to establish some key points and principles regarding this calling to have dominion as it exists generally.

Notice first of all that man – that is mankind, encompassing both male and female – is charged with exercising dominion upon the earth. This position of dominion or lordship is apparently the essential component of what it in fact means to be made in God’s image. When man exercises dominion over creation as God intended him to do then he is in that very capacity most accurately and fully representing God Himself to the rest of the created order.

Secondly, notice that this authority given to man includes both the earth itself and the other, lesser creatures which dwell upon it.

Notice thirdly that what is involved here has two closely related though slightly differentiated aspects which should not be confused, separated or set against one another: Man’s position as established here by God involves authority over it, which would include the implicit sanction to order it, make use of it and dispose of it as he deems most fitting (according to certain fundamental principles and within certain important parameters). At the same time, this exercise of authority is always to have the net effect of replenishing or nurturing the creation. (Many translations render the phrase in v.28 as “fill the earth”, but I like the AV's choice of “replenish” here. The Hebrew word here does literally mean “to fill”, but I think the context of Genesis indicates a filling which is qualitative as opposed to simply quantitative. In other words, man is certainly supposed to “fill up the earth” by populating it, but as he does so, he must take care to go about it in a away that enhances rather than detracts from the glory and the richness of the creation, lest his filling of the earth actually amount to an emptying of it and its resources.)

And lastly it must be remembered that all of this is established in a pre-Fall context, which provides much to ruminate upon. The Fall of course greatly marred and deteriorated this established order, particulaly man's ability to faithfully fulfill his role in it. But the trajectory of redemptive history as presented in the Bible involves a return to the Garden, a return which is made possible by the work of Christ. Since in Christ we are re-established in our role as His agents upon the earth, it is therefore imperative that we seek to more fully apprehend what that role entails – for redeemed mankind generally as well as for each of us in our individual callings – based upon a careful examination of its original authorization.

Bezalel

Since mankind is created in the image of God, the calling to imitate Him applies to all of us as we live our daily lives and pursue our respective vocations. We are all called to be, as it were, “God’s shadow” simply on the basis of our creation in His image.

If it is true, however, that man as man is called to imitate God, the text of Exodus 31 would seem to indicate that the artist fulfills this calling in some unique respects. The Hebrew name Bezalel literally means “in the shadow of God”. As hinted above, the name itself has certain reverberations with respect to mankind’s original calling as established in the early chapters of Genesis. Moreover, it is interesting to note that this is the first instance we find in Scripture (following Genesis chapter 2) of a man being filled with God’s Spirit. And, as is most often the case, particularly in the Old Testament, we find that this unique gift of the Spirit is given with respect to a particular calling or duty to which that individual is appointed.

Bezalel was the man assigned by God to oversee the design and construction of the tabernacle (the tent in which God's presence accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness during the period of the Exodus) and all of its furnishings and associate articles. This task encompassed a number of different crafts and artistic disciplines - virtually all of them in fact: sculpture, carpentry, wood carving, metalworking, weaving, embroidery, gem cutting, jewelry design, engraving, calligraphy, and (broadly considered) graphic design. The overall plan called for the implementation of both representational and non-representational (abstract) art. Without doubt Bezalel would have relied upon skills and canons of visual representation which had been acquired in Egypt, and yet he was also to follow a detailed pattern which had been divinely revealed through Moses. (Exodus 25:40; 26:30; 27:8) The principles of form and function are in constant interplay and (Modernist assertions to the contrary aside) it is often difficult to ascertain which is in the driver’s seat.

There are many rich truths here and in related passages which I hope to explore further in some future posts.