Page "Orientalism" Paragraph 29

William Holman Hunt produced a number of major paintings of Biblical subjects drawing on his Middle Eastern travels, improvising variants of contemporary Arab costume and furnishings to avoid specifically Islamic styles, and also some landscapes and genre subjects.

The biblical subjects included The Scapegoat ( 1856 ), The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple ( 1860 ), and The Shadow of Death ( 1871 ).

The Miracle of the Holy Fire ( 1899 ) was intended as a picturesque satire on the local Eastern Christians, of whom, like most English visitors, Hunt took a very dim view.

His A Street Scene in Cairo ; The Lantern-Maker's Courtship ( 1854 – 61 ) is a rare contemporary narrative scene, as the young man feels his fiancé's face, which he is not allowed to see, through her veil, as an Westerner in the background beats his way up the street with his stick.

This a rare intrusion of a clearly contemporary figure into an Orientalist scene ; mostly they claim the picturesqueness of the historical painting so popular at the time, without the trouble of researching authentic costumes and settings.