Prodigal Son Art

"I would prefer there was no art, and no great paintings anywhere in the world, than that the freedoms and liberties that we hold so dear would be lost." (ARC

Chairman, Fred Ross)

Art for the heart

• "In China, there is an annual festival when people come home to the well. The Prodigal returns to the well, and the rice bowl has been filled for him. The wanderer will be full.

• Don't just look at the pictures in this section. Enter them. Walk into the scene. Imagine what the figures are saying, doing and feeling. Imagine what happened just before and after that which is pictured.

• And notice what moves in your heart. Is something in you touched? Challenged? Does something long for healing? Do desires and hungers bubble up that yearn to be prayed to God, who is inviting lost and neglected parts of your life to come home?

Paintings of the Prodigal Son invites us deeper into God’s story-

and ours

• "The ache of wandering in lonely places where no one really knows or cares about you, the unrequited yearning for a home you always wanted but could never find, is finally satisfied. The search is over. He's home."

Paintings of the Prodigal Son invites us deeper into God’s story-

and ours• "I was a roofer

once. When you slip there's a panicky moment when you reach out and there's nothing there. The son has that panicky death grip, almost begging, Don't let me loose."

Paintings of the Prodigal Son invites us deeper into God’s story-

and ours

• "The embrace is so intense that it's hard to know where one leaves off and the other begins. What one has the other has; mercy and need are blended into one."

Paintings of the Prodigal Son invites us deeper into God’s story-

and ours

• Returning home means coming again to the place where I can hear God's voice deep within saying, You are my beloved, on you my favor rests."

Paintings of the Prodigal Son invites us deeper into God’s story-

and ours

• "I imagine the father coming toward him, and I want him to move his hand from his eyes. What have I done? he seems to say in despair. But unless he moves his hand he will never see the grace that won't go away."

Paintings of the Prodigal Son invites us deeper into God’s story-

and ours• "The story is in the

tears , our tears and God's tears. I've cried them and I've caused them. We let our children go, wishing to prevent their troubles, each time welcoming them back as God welcomes us. It's an eternal return, a never-ending story."

• Through the artists' imagination and skill, God's word becomes flesh, ushering us into levels of meaning in the story that we may not have imagined. God addresses us anew in these images, healing and nurturing places in our souls that surely need to return to God's great love--the only home of which we are eternally certain.

Prodigal Son Paintings

Estebán Murrillo Bartolomé- Spain, 1667-1670

Prodigal Son Paintings

Estebán Murrillo Bartolomé- Spain, 1667-1670

Prodigal Son Paintings

Estebán Murrillo Bartolomé- Spain, 1667-1670

Pieter Pauwel Rubens - 1618

The Prodigal Son

Salvatore Rosa - 1650

The Prodigal Son

Metsu Gabriel - 1640

The Prodigal Son

Prodigal Son paintings

Rembrandt and Saskia 1635

Rembrandt van Rijn- 1636

Etching on laid paper

The Prodigal Son

• Ask: Where am I in this story? Perhaps like the Prodigal you share an experience of lostness. Maybe, like the older brother, places in your heart resent the father's acceptance of one who isn't as good or dutiful as you. Or you might be aware that, like the father, you hunger to share your love with someone unwilling to receive it. You might even discover yourself listening to people at the edge of the scene, who think the Prodigal is a worthless bum and the father is a fool for falling all over himself when he returns.

Rembrandt Van Rijn

Born 1609 Died 1669

The Return of the

Prodigal Son

1668

Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Ask: Where am I in this story? Perhaps like the Prodigal you share an experience of lostness. Maybe, like the older brother, places in your heart resent the father's acceptance of one who isn't as good or dutiful as you.

Or you might be aware that, like the father, you hunger to share your love with someone unwilling to receive it. You might even discover yourself listening to people at the edge of the scene, who think the Prodigal is a worthless bum and the father is a fool for falling all over himself when he returns.

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"The Prodigal Son returns not just to his father but to a place of abundance, and not on his knees, but standing, fully restored.