mixed media on illustration board
– [ 15” x 20” x ¼” ] – unframed Email for price
This is a tribute to Michael Servetus. In the Middle Ages, he was a Christian hebraicist who followed the interpretation of David Kimchi in regards to the bible. He favored going back to the original language of the bible and the rabbinical interpretation thereof. He is also credited with discovering the circulatory system, but he was attacked by his fellow Christian scholars such as Martin Luther and John Calvin for being too Jewish. After he was accused of being a heretic among other things, he answered his critics with a paper titled “The Letters of Obscure Men”. He refused to admit his error and repent from his opinions, so John Calvin slyly tricked Servetus by inviting him to come to Zwingli and attend his church service. He lied to Servetus and told him that he found his theory interesting and wished to discuss it after services on Sunday. When Servetus arrived he was promptly seized after services and burned at the stake. I guess one can get away with this type of behavior if one has a doctrine of predestination, since you get a free ticket into heaven no matter what you do. Or, perhaps Calvin couldn’t stand to let the Catholics have a monopoly on burning heretics at the stake. Either way, I’m sure it was all for the glory of God. There is no lack of doctrinal issues within that book referred to as Holy Scripture to justify just about any type of behavior if one is ingenious enough.
I usually use clouds and the color blue to represent the essence of God, but here it has been manufactured and has a slightly ridiculous aspect. The Greek letters are for Christianity and God and the 6 stars with the Star of David shining over them represent Judaism and the days of the week. The brownish crescents coming from the same source God comes from, shows that one can have it both ways, but to do so, one must conform the divine into our image, instead of us conforming to it.