Em busca da autenticidade: Holman Hunt no Próximo Oriente, 1854-92

Abstract

A legendary episode in the history of British art in the 19th century concerns William Holman Hunt’s adventurous journey to Palestine in November 1954 to paint The Scapegoat, where, according to his own account, he had to brave both the wilderness and the bandits, the brush in one hand and a shotgun in the other. This was the first of his four voyages to Egypt and Palestine in order to find “real” scenery for his religious paintings, which resulted in a substantial amount of oil paintings, watercolours and drawings. This essay analyses a limited number of these paintings, in light of Hunt’s position as a Pre-Raphaelite and as an orientalist painter.