Instead, the artist chose to contrast his chief subject, the encounter of Melchizedek and Abram, with a series of symbols in the upper portion of the window.Ībove the figure of Melchizedek, the just king, Hunt provided a Greek inscription which is a conflation of Hebrews 7:1 and 3: "Melchizedek, king of Salem, who has neither a beginning to his days, nor an end to his life, remains as priest forever." (I am grateful to Professor Ernest S. Whatever its origins, this work is of particular interest, because the nature of stained-glass precluded Hunt's characteristic use of a realistic assemblage of symbolic details. Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood relates that Beamont asked him to decorate his church, but it does not mention any stained-glass designs, and Melchizedek does not seem to fit in with the paintings Hunt proposed to execute (II.250-2). Michael and All Angels, Cambridge, in that year. Beamont, who had been appointed vicar of the Church of St. The origins of this undated design are unclear, although it is possible that the artist began it in 1865 for the Rev. Hunt made a far different use of typological symbolism in Melchizedek,Ī design for a stained-glass window, a pen and wash drawing of which is in the British Museum Print Room. "The Brazen Serpent or the Terrors of Existence Faced in Faith." Good Words (1878): 188.
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