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  2. Wisdom

Wisdom

Wisdom is often personified in Scripture. It names the agency of God in making and shaping the world. And it is highly prized by the biblical writers (especially in the so-called ‘Wisdom literature’, which includes books such as Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes) as the source of human flourishing and insight—more precious than riches. Christian tradition associates Christ with Wisdom because he is the one through whom ‘all things were made’ and he gives ‘light’ to humanity’ (John 1:3–4). These exhibitions listen out for the voice of Wisdom in the words of Scripture, with the help of their chosen artworks.

Study of Cirrus Clouds by John Constable
Nocturne: Blue and Silver–Cremorne Lights by James McNeill Whistler
Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast by Ludolf Backhuysen I

Job 28 Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?

The Wisdom Window by Tom Denny
The Tree of Life, interior of the Watts Cemetery Chapel by Mary S. Watts
Memorial for Corporal Bombardier Samuel Robinson by Paul B. Kincaid

Proverbs 8 Whoever Finds Me Finds Life

Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch
Industrialised Peasants (Industriebauern) by Georg Scholz
A Line Made by Walking by Richard Long

Proverbs 11 Straight and Crooked Paths to Wisdom

Vanitas Still Life with Self-Portrait by David Bailly
Flowers in a Glass Vase with a Tulip by Rachel Ruysch
A Landscape with a Ruined Castle and a Church by Jacob van Ruisdael

Ecclesiastes 1:1–12 Vanity of Vanities

Lemons and Limes by Bartolomeo Bimbi
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? by Paul Gauguin
Green Disaster #2 (Green Disaster Ten Times) by Andy Warhol

Ecclesiastes 1:12–2:26 Philosophy, Pleasure, and Folly

Allegory of the City of Madrid by Francisco de Goya
Self-Portrait at the Easel by Rembrandt van Rijn
The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid (The Executions) by Francisco de Goya

Ecclesiastes 3 For Everything a Season

Icon of Saint Sophia or the Heavenly Wisdom of God, from Chapel of the Archangel Michael, Lelikozero, Medvezhyegorsk District, by an Unknown Russian artist,  Zaonezhsky peninsula school
Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya Camii)
Saint Sophia the Wisdom of God, by an Unknown 18th-century painter of the Kyiv School of Icon Painting (Sophia Icon Painting Workshop?)

Wisdom of Solomon 6–9 Loving Wisdom

The Crucifixion, by Graham Sutherland
Sophia, Wisdom of God, by an unknown artist
Pentecost, from the Ingeborg Psalter (Psalterium Ingeburgae reginae)

1 Corinthians 2 Divine Incognito

More Exhibitions

General Resurrection from the Bamberg-Eichstätt Psalter by unknown German artist
Sarcophagus of Theodore by Unknown Italian artist
The Resurrection, Cookham by Stanley Spencer

1 Corinthians 15:35–58 Bodily Resurrection

Yellow Crucifixion by Marc Chagall
Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way (Domine, Quo Vadis?) by Annibale Carracci
The Last Judgement by The Last Judgement

1 Peter 4:12–19 Finding Meaning in Suffering

The War in Heaven (pane 7g), part of The Great East Window of York Minster
Saint Michael and the Devil by Unknown Spanish Artist
The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Revelation 12:7–12 War in Heaven

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