Composite Camel with Attendant, Late 16th century, Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 229 x 170 mm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of George D. Pratt, 1925, 25.83.6, www.metmuseum.org
How does impossibility look to the eye? We call events or ideas ‘impossible’ when they show us something unexpected, inexplicable, or suddenly new. The sort of impossibility perhaps imagined by George Frederic Watts’s portrait of a rich man faced with a challenge harder than anyone would want a challenge to be. These are the possible ‘impossibilities’: undoable only because they have yet to be done. Improbable and potentially inadvisable; but technically ‘possible’ according to the rules of the everyday, waking world. Even though the task is ‘impossibly difficult’, anyone could sell everything and follow Jesus. Peter reminds his master how some already have!
Those disciples must then react to another impossible image. Jesus’s micro-parable says big camels go through tiny needles more easily than rich people enter the kingdom of heaven. Impossibility can also be seen through the surreal. This is the impossibility at work in the Composite Camel with Attendant: a beast unable to be found in the wild world as we know it. Imagined impossibilities can even be frightening. Beautiful and strange, this camel may shock, amaze, or captivate—like Jesus’s challenge to the rich young man (or ruler in Luke). If it only shocks it leaves us like Watts’s rich aristocrat. If it also captivates it encourages us to journey. Sometimes, artists visualize impossibility by reassembling pieces of the world as we know them. Monsters and fantasy vistas expand the limits of the imagination, pointing to the world’s promise beyond ordinary sightlines.
Some impossibilities will never literally be ‘seen’ in a picture. Words of poetry can sing logical contradictions (like a square circle) in ways that elude figurative art’s representational forms. Yet the abstract colours and shapes in Paul Klee’s palette could perhaps be said to rhyme with this third sort of impossibility. Does New Harmony elicit the same calm feeling of balance as a well-struck chord, connecting us with something more than what we see?
Themes of recombination and renunciation are a feature not just of this exchange with the rich young man, but of the teachings and encounters that immediately precede and follow it. They are reminders of how accepted standards of possibility become transfigured in God. Christ’s teaching about inheritance, goodness, and salvation all underscore God’s complete unexpectedness. Only God counts as good (Mark 10:18; Matthew 19:17; Luke 18:19); only ephemeral treasures in heaven have lasting value (Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22); all things are possible only for God (Mark 10:27; Matthew 19:26; Luke 18:27). These three images invite us to consider impossibility: the non-possibility for mortals of achieving eternal life through some action of their own. The impossible coherence of all the world’s history living eternally in the kingdom of heaven: a complex-unity beyond the confines of the world’s old and broken harmonies of time and space. New Harmony could, perhaps, work alongside the Composite Camel to awaken in us a new sensibility about the heavenly kingdom.
The viewer of a work of art assembles differences into unity by operating from outside an image’s ‘frame’. The rich young man is asked to adopt a viewpoint that permits a new assemblage of what he sees—perhaps to look on the poor with the same gaze of love he receives from Christ.
We might view in the camel’s single attendant a reminder of this Christ: the One who invites the rich man to ‘come, follow me’ (Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22) just as the other disciples have already done. The caravan leads to eternal life by following behind the teacher, turning away from self-obsessed histories toward shared futures.
Reading in the company of these works of art may help us to visualize the astounding wonders of God. The impossibilities suggested by them remind us of the vast treasures the follower of Christ has already inherited, precisely while being asked to give them away. Beauty arises when goods are shared.
These works critique cultures of opulence even as they participate within them. Hoarded wealth, like any self-obsession, curves our attention inwards and causes us to look away from the amazements that arise from sharing in unexpected relationships. Like these images, Christ directs our attention outside comfortable frames of reference. Perhaps Watts’s sense of avarice’s lament honours the grace required to do an impossible act of love for others. The Composite Camel may help us glimpse the impossible harmonization of histories in the eternal life promised by Jesus. Klee’s abstractions can invite new openness to wonder through artistic experiments that push the limits of what was previously thought possible.
These works remind us that God’s all-possibility always confounds and reshapes the merely mortal imagination.
16 And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” 17And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” 21Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27Then Peter said in reply, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” 28Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 30But many that are first will be last, and the last first.
Mark 10
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.” 21And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” 28Peter began to say to him, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you.” 29Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many that are first will be last, and the last first.”
Luke 18
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21And he said, “All these I have observed from my youth.” 22And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23But when he heard this he became sad, for he was very rich. 24Jesus looking at him said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” 28And Peter said, “Lo, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
George Frederick Watts
‘For he had great possessions’, 1894, Oil on canvas, 139.7 x 58.4 cm, Tate, N01632, © Tate, London / Art Resource, NY
Paul Klee
New Harmony, 1936, Oil on canvas, 93.6 x 66.3 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 71.1960, © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation / Art Resource, NY
Unknown Iranian artist
Composite Camel with Attendant, Late 16th century, Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 229 x 170 mm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of George D. Pratt, 1925, 25.83.6, www.metmuseum.org
Visualizing Impossibility
How does impossibility look to the eye? We call events or ideas ‘impossible’ when they show us something unexpected, inexplicable, or suddenly new. The sort of impossibility perhaps imagined by George Frederic Watts’s portrait of a rich man faced with a challenge harder than anyone would want a challenge to be. These are the possible ‘impossibilities’: undoable only because they have yet to be done. Improbable and potentially inadvisable; but technically ‘possible’ according to the rules of the everyday, waking world. Even though the task is ‘impossibly difficult’, anyone could sell everything and follow Jesus. Peter reminds his master how some already have!
Those disciples must then react to another impossible image. Jesus’s micro-parable says big camels go through tiny needles more easily than rich people enter the kingdom of heaven. Impossibility can also be seen through the surreal. This is the impossibility at work in the Composite Camel with Attendant: a beast unable to be found in the wild world as we know it. Imagined impossibilities can even be frightening. Beautiful and strange, this camel may shock, amaze, or captivate—like Jesus’s challenge to the rich young man (or ruler in Luke). If it only shocks it leaves us like Watts’s rich aristocrat. If it also captivates it encourages us to journey. Sometimes, artists visualize impossibility by reassembling pieces of the world as we know them. Monsters and fantasy vistas expand the limits of the imagination, pointing to the world’s promise beyond ordinary sightlines.
Some impossibilities will never literally be ‘seen’ in a picture. Words of poetry can sing logical contradictions (like a square circle) in ways that elude figurative art’s representational forms. Yet the abstract colours and shapes in Paul Klee’s palette could perhaps be said to rhyme with this third sort of impossibility. Does New Harmony elicit the same calm feeling of balance as a well-struck chord, connecting us with something more than what we see?
Themes of recombination and renunciation are a feature not just of this exchange with the rich young man, but of the teachings and encounters that immediately precede and follow it. They are reminders of how accepted standards of possibility become transfigured in God. Christ’s teaching about inheritance, goodness, and salvation all underscore God’s complete unexpectedness. Only God counts as good (Mark 10:18; Matthew 19:17; Luke 18:19); only ephemeral treasures in heaven have lasting value (Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22); all things are possible only for God (Mark 10:27; Matthew 19:26; Luke 18:27). These three images invite us to consider impossibility: the non-possibility for mortals of achieving eternal life through some action of their own. The impossible coherence of all the world’s history living eternally in the kingdom of heaven: a complex-unity beyond the confines of the world’s old and broken harmonies of time and space. New Harmony could, perhaps, work alongside the Composite Camel to awaken in us a new sensibility about the heavenly kingdom.
The viewer of a work of art assembles differences into unity by operating from outside an image’s ‘frame’. The rich young man is asked to adopt a viewpoint that permits a new assemblage of what he sees—perhaps to look on the poor with the same gaze of love he receives from Christ.
We might view in the camel’s single attendant a reminder of this Christ: the One who invites the rich man to ‘come, follow me’ (Mark 10:21; Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22) just as the other disciples have already done. The caravan leads to eternal life by following behind the teacher, turning away from self-obsessed histories toward shared futures.
Reading in the company of these works of art may help us to visualize the astounding wonders of God. The impossibilities suggested by them remind us of the vast treasures the follower of Christ has already inherited, precisely while being asked to give them away. Beauty arises when goods are shared.
These works critique cultures of opulence even as they participate within them. Hoarded wealth, like any self-obsession, curves our attention inwards and causes us to look away from the amazements that arise from sharing in unexpected relationships. Like these images, Christ directs our attention outside comfortable frames of reference. Perhaps Watts’s sense of avarice’s lament honours the grace required to do an impossible act of love for others. The Composite Camel may help us glimpse the impossible harmonization of histories in the eternal life promised by Jesus. Klee’s abstractions can invite new openness to wonder through artistic experiments that push the limits of what was previously thought possible.
These works remind us that God’s all-possibility always confounds and reshapes the merely mortal imagination.
Matthew 19:16–30; Mark 10:17–31; Luke 18:18–30
Revised Standard Version
Matthew 19
16 And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” 17And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” 21Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27Then Peter said in reply, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” 28Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 30But many that are first will be last, and the last first.
Mark 10
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.” 21And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” 28Peter began to say to him, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you.” 29Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many that are first will be last, and the last first.”
Luke 18
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21And he said, “All these I have observed from my youth.” 22And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23But when he heard this he became sad, for he was very rich. 24Jesus looking at him said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” 28And Peter said, “Lo, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
More Exhibitions
David Dances before the Ark
2 Samuel 6; 1 Chronicles 13 & 15
Vanity of Vanities
Ecclesiastes 1:1–12
Who are my Mother and my Brothers?
Matthew 12:46–50; Mark 3:31–35; Luke 8:19–21