J.M.W. TURNER (1775–1851)
Mount Sinaï / Jabal Musa (2,285 m - 7,496ft)
Egypt
In "Mount Sinai, the valley in which the Children of Israel were encamped",
pencil, pen, ink and watercolor on paper, 12.7 x 20.2 cm.
Private collection ( Christie's London/ 06/07/2010)
It descibes the moment Moses have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.
The mountain
Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496 ft) or Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region.
It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629 m - 8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt.
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.
The painter
The english painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was considered a
controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who
elevated landscape painting to an eminence in the history of painting.
Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the
greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is
commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a
Romantic preface to Impressionism.
In his thirties, Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France
and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same
year. He made many visits to Venice. Turner's talent was recognized
early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate
freely; his mature work is characterized by a chromatic palette and
broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's
The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called
"fantastic puzzles." Turner was recognized as an artistic genius:
influential English art critic John Ruskin described him as the artist
who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature."
Turner's major venture into printmaking was the Liber Studiorum (Book of
Studies), seventy prints that he worked on from 1806 to 1819. The Liber
Studiorum was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. The
idea was loosely based on Claude Lorrain's Liber Veritatis (Book of
Truth), where Lorrain had recorded his completed paintings; a series of
print copies of these drawings, by then at Devonshire House, had been a
huge publishing success. Turner's plates were meant to be widely
disseminated, and categorized the genre into six types: Marine,
Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic
Pastoral. His printmaking was a major part of his output, and a museum
is devoted to it, the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida, founded in
1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner
prints.
Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his
affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of
people drinking or working or walking in the foreground), but its
vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on
the other. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a
natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God – a theme
that romanticist artists and poets were exploring in this period.
Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and
therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for
expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding
primarily to optical phenomena.
Turner used pigments like carmine in his paintings, knowing that they
were not long-lasting, despite the advice of contemporary experts to use
more durable pigments. As a result, many of his colours have now faded
greatly.
John Ruskin says in his "Notes" on Turner in March 1878 : "His true
master was Dr Monro; to the practical teaching of that first patron and
the wise simplicity of method of watercolour study, in which he was
disciplined by him and companioned by Girtin, the healthy and constant
development of the greater power is primarily to be attributed; the
greatness of the power itself, it is impossible to over-estimate. "
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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
