William Holman Hunt’s Fantastic Magic Lantern

Lanterns are a reoccurring motif in the art of the Pre-Raphaelite painter, William Holman Hunt (1827–1910). They appear in Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’, ‘A Street Scene in Cairo’ and ‘The Miracle of the Sacred Fire, Church of the Holy Sepulchre’, along with several drawings and sketches. The lanterns in Hunt’s art mobilise themes of enlightenment, revelation and faith, especially in the context of pictures motivated by the artist’s search for spiritual truth. They also reveal the artist’s ongoing experimentation with different forms of illumination – natural and artificial, divine and manufactured. In this article I consider the ways Hunt’s religious subject paintings are animated by modern light technologies, from gas light to limelight to x-ray. I argue that the light emanating from the lanterns in Hunt’s paintings tends to burn too bright, producing dramatic highlights and ominous shadows that mystify rather than clarify. While not initially evident, it becomes increasingly apparent that the threat of violence and fear of death pervades Hunt’s portrayals of Christ and the light of God that he was believed to emit. Hence, instead of offering a reassuring vision of Christian truth, the light effects that animate Hunt’s religious subject paintings confuse, confound and shadow death.