The artist, in an inchoate way, is aware of the problem facing Christendom. There is the pillar of truth, which is at once supported and threatened by the Papacy. There is the pillar representing “modernity” and the power of the mind to discover things. When things break down in sheer power and lies, you get the blood red wall.
What is the solution to the problem? The artist is aware of wonderful theologians like John Fisher or perhaps more significantly Erasmus (patron of Holbein). It was said Erasmus (who held the respect of both Catholics and Protestants) that if he had accepted to be a Cardinal he might have resolved the Reformation issue. The solution to the issue then is a bridge between a pillar of truth and the pillar of naturally known truth. The artist has constructed stone bridge moving betwixt the two pillars. A couple of the stones are pointed and make a point towards the pillar of truth – or perhaps point to it.
The word for priest – one of them – is pontifex, Bridge builder. In that time, theological truth belonged especially to priests. Yet the grey bridge in the area of the main column is already in full light. The light of intellect has its autonomy. In the picture it ascends as a bridge to meet the column of modernity just where he picture ends.
I recall reading my father’s diary for 1939. Disaster looms. The mind pulls together everything that might make a solution. Hope springs eternal.
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