skeptik
Member
- Feb 7, 2003
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Mothing. I'm working on an essay in which I have to either analyze a pre-Civil War American religious painting from a non-religious perspective or a pre-Civil War American non-religious painting from a religious perspective. I chose Benjamin West's "The Death Of General Wolfe," a non-religious painting, which you can see here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Benjamin_West_005.jpg. There are 4 particularly obvious latent religious images toward this painting, as I see it. The foremost is the officers to the right of the painting actually having their hands folded in prayer. General Wolfe himself also resembles Christ coming off the cross, which in this case is the army banner behind him. The officer holding the banner could be a reference to Jesus actually bearing the cross to Golgotha. Also, the Native American to the bottom left of the frame could represent the noble savage concept, the goodness of man through God before the tainting exposure of man.
