In her blog, Book Reader's Heaven, Glenda A. Bixler blogs about Books, Reviews, Authors, Publicity, Tips, short stories, essays...a little poetry, a cat story or two, thoughts on music, movies and products selections. I am thrilled to find her review of my art book, Inspired by Art: Fall of a Giant:
Uvi Poznansky is continuing the David and Goliath Saga. Fighting Goliath was the first I reviewed, so you might want to jump back to pick up the beginning, prior to continuing today...
We begin today with the death of the Giant Goliath. This book gave me more to ponder than the last one...that killing Goliath prevented a war is a great reason... But I'm one of the "why" type of people that asked "Why then cut off his head?" With the ISIS beheading activities paramount in our minds, I went out to look for a brief answer to include here in case others are interested: By decapitating Goliath, David wanted to "show the whole world that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by the sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands".
There were other references of cultural issues that might also apply but, the above reference seemed to fit what I was thinking as I followed each artist's portrayal of how he was to portray the aftermath of Goliath's death; i.e., that his head was cut off and carried away... I found myself analyzing each artist choosing one particular one as how I felt David would have responded to what he'd just done--he had killed a man! To me, I believed that David would have immediately turned toward God and talked, prayed to Him. It was God who had surely chosen a young shepherd, using a slingshot, to destroy any chances of war. David would have thanked him, as was shown in Guercino's portrayal of David. Having cut off the head, David immediately turned towards heaven to speak to God, to thank Him in being with him in the battle.
Other presentations by various artists are gruesome, as he walked back to Jerusalem carrying the head; but as I thought about each, they also exhibited the natural thrill of victory, of knowing he had acted as commanded by God...and had succeeded!
As we saw in the previous book, there continues to be a wide range of choices made in portraying David. As can be seen in the Giovanni Lanfranco's painting, the actual size of Goliath was never really accepted. Lanfranco chose to make Goliath's head large enough that David had to drag it, while others show that David easily carried the head... Perhaps that is really unimportant except in attempting to reason out why each of the artists might have chosen how his painting showed the scene.
In this array of paintings, I noticed quite a few had David dressed in grandeur, in clothes which would never have been worn by a poor shepherd... As we close out the book with paintings of celebration, of Saul's response to what was happening, it leaves readers with a desire to move forward to see how this story of the Goliath's death results in changes in David's life...
This concentration, this study of paintings based upon a specific theme, to me, surpasses walking through an art gallery or books covering a particular artist or style of painting. For me, this is another new experience where each painting, created by various artists and presented in comparison, forces the reader, the observer of the paintings, to consider the story behind the painting and question whether the artist sees the story as you would or as something completely different. It is unique in presentation, is an excellent teaching instrument and is also quite a beautiful, wonderful addition to your personal library.
Do check out this and other books in this series. It is highly recommended to scholars, students, and all those who love paintings as an expression of our wonderful world...
GABixlerReviews
on March 16, 2017
Uvi Poznansky is continuing the David and Goliath Saga. Fighting Goliath was the first I reviewed, so you might want to jump back to pick up the beginning, prior to continuing today...We begin today with the death of the Giant Goliath. This book gave me more to ponder than the last one...that killing Goliath prevented a war is a great reason... But I'm one of the "why" type of people that asked "Why then cut off his head?" With the ISIS beheading activities paramount in our minds, I went out to look for a brief answer to include here in case others are interested: By decapitating Goliath, David wanted to "show the whole world that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by the sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands".
There were other references of cultural issues that might also apply but, the above reference seemed to fit what I was thinking as I followed each artist's portrayal of how he was to portray the aftermath of Goliath's death; i.e., that his head was cut off and carried away... I found myself analyzing each artist choosing one particular one as how I felt David would have responded to what he'd just done--he had killed a man! To me, I believed that David would have immediately turned toward God and talked, prayed to Him. It was God who had surely chosen a young shepherd, using a slingshot, to destroy any chances of war. David would have thanked him, as was shown in Guercino's portrayal of David. Having cut off the head, David immediately turned towards heaven to speak to God, to thank Him in being with him in the battle.
Other presentations by various artists are gruesome, as he walked back to Jerusalem carrying the head; but as I thought about each, they also exhibited the natural thrill of victory, of knowing he had acted as commanded by God...and had succeeded!
As we saw in the previous book, there continues to be a wide range of choices made in portraying David. As can be seen in the Giovanni Lanfranco's painting, the actual size of Goliath was never really accepted. Lanfranco chose to make Goliath's head large enough that David had to drag it, while others show that David easily carried the head... Perhaps that is really unimportant except in attempting to reason out why each of the artists might have chosen how his painting showed the scene.
In this array of paintings, I noticed quite a few had David dressed in grandeur, in clothes which would never have been worn by a poor shepherd... As we close out the book with paintings of celebration, of Saul's response to what was happening, it leaves readers with a desire to move forward to see how this story of the Goliath's death results in changes in David's life...
This concentration, this study of paintings based upon a specific theme, to me, surpasses walking through an art gallery or books covering a particular artist or style of painting. For me, this is another new experience where each painting, created by various artists and presented in comparison, forces the reader, the observer of the paintings, to consider the story behind the painting and question whether the artist sees the story as you would or as something completely different. It is unique in presentation, is an excellent teaching instrument and is also quite a beautiful, wonderful addition to your personal library.
Do check out this and other books in this series. It is highly recommended to scholars, students, and all those who love paintings as an expression of our wonderful world...
GABixlerReviews
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