04 September 2015

Joseph Martin Kronheim's Scriptural Art

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The Sunday at Home: A Family Magazine for Sabbath Reading, 1880 [collected volume]
There was a time when many Christians in northern Europe and the British Empire cherished such prints of Sacred Scripture.  They appeared in the magazines of the 19th century and early 20th century, and many families would frame these prints to adorn the walls in the family home.  These were often the icons of devout Protestant homes.

The electronic scan of such an artwork by Joseph Martin Kronheim (found above) does not fully communicate the beauty of the print using the George Baxter process.  And yet even in this form one can see that it is beautifully rendered (even if it isn't one's cup of tea).  

The quotation from The Revelation to St. John in the Authorised Version (King James) translation was given an artistic treatment that invites the reader to contemplate the scripture "in a different voice" from the plain text in the normative printing of the Holy Bible.  The scripture itself becomes a thing of Beauty.

If you like, dear Reader, you may click on the image above, and 'God willing and the creek don't rise' you will open up a larger version.  And perhaps you will want to adorn the 'wall' of your computer screen background image with this Kronheim print.  God bless!
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