Thursday 24 March 2016

John Collier's Lilith



"I am looking forward to a time when ethics will have taken the place of religion . . . the benefits can be attained by other means which are less conducive to strife and which put less strain upon the reasoning faculties." Sir John Collier (1850-1934)* 

According to Wikipedia the above painting can be seen in the Southport Gallery.


*My emphasis.


13 comments:

  1. Quite an intriguing and amazingly artistic painting.

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    1. I'm only discovering Lilith who was the first wife of Adam made from the same earth. She left because he wouldn't treat her as an equal. The second wife Eve was too late on the scene to be of the same earth and so had to be made from his rib. Intriguing is that all this is new to me. I think they brainwashed me, or tried to, in Sunday school, when they gave me a silver coin, a sixpence, to learn some biblical text. So it goes.

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  2. Beautiful painting.
    As to the quotation Gwil, all I can say is it certainly won't happen in my lifetime or that of my grandchildren judging by the way things are.

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    1. Pat, it is a lovely work. Maybe a day out for you if indeed it is in Southport. I think the quotation is from the 1920s. So, nearly 100 years ago and nothing changed.

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  3. __They followed the Sunrise to the Sunset, and honored all to which the Sun gave "being."
    __They worshiped the stones, the trees, the mountains and valleys, the rivers and seas, the birds and all lives of their Earth. Their religeon was their seeing and feeling the mysteries of life, and of nature. It was a religeon of their personal and inner feeling, that was -not- imposed by the imprintations from "superior" minds.
    __Their common and deepest fear was -war- seem cingly caused by the lack of 'ethics' in their "superior" elder's egos... created and fed by the fear of population.
    __They are insulted (rightly) by the title -Redskins-.

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    1. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. We gave them rifles and firewater and called them injuns. Them injuns and the cavalry bugler. Only one winner.

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  4. Replies
    1. She was the first woman. She wanted to lie on top. If Adam would have agreed to this, being equal partners as it were and not wanting to be on top himself, then the whole world would be different today. Woman on top means peace. Man on top means trouble. That's my reading of the original sin. Man's insistence on being dominant leading to women being brutalized and subjugated and turned into chattels. Adam was a fool.

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  5. A beautiful painting! I didn't read the comments above (I always do that after commenting), so maybe I repeat something. There are two versions of Lilith - and I tend to see her not as a demon, but as an autonomous, independent woman (that makes her to a demon in many men's eye, maybe :-)
    "In Jewish folklore, from Alphabet of Ben Sira (ca 700-1000 CE) onwards, Lilith appears as Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and from the same earth as Adam - compare Genesis 1:27. (This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs: Genesis 2:22)" (...) "Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she had coupled with the archangel Samael." So: Paradise Lost...

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I think we are of the same conclusion. Maybe there is a planet somewhere in the universe where men and women are created equal. If there is not, what is the point of it all?

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Sorry Gwil, I deleted because it repeated some of my sentences in a paragraph.

    After admiring here Bruna Doria's colourful paintings, I went and did some research on the subject. I did not know this story. 

    I saw the closing date to the exhibition, unfortunately I will not be able to make it for then. 
    Wishing you a happy Easter weekend. Greetings Maria x

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    1. Maria, you are not alone. Nobody I have spoken to knows the story. Maybe. they will extend the closing. You never know. Have a good Easter in Verona. Lovely place.

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