Things Hidden from the Wise

Things Hidden from the ‘Wise’ Commentary by Bridget Nichols Cite Share Show Bible Passage Read by Ben Quash Gladwyn K. Bush, nicknamed ‘Miss Lassie’, was a fourth generation Cayman Islander. Self-taught, she began to paint at the age of 62 and had a prolific career until her death in 2003. This extended beyond individual works to her wattle and daub house, decorated with the same vitality evident here in her treatment of Balaam and the Ass (1995). The Cayman National Cultural Foundation honours her as a distinctively Carib artist and has preserved the house, while the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands displays several of her paintings in their collection of ‘Intuitive Art and Early Pioneers’. The naïve style of her treatment of Balaam and the Ass might at first glance suggest to the viewer a child-like response to the story. Yet, it is much more than a colourful tableau. As in the Weltchronik illumination, elsewhere in this exhibition, only the three leading characters appear, arranged in a horizontal plane. Balaam and the angel look towards the viewer, but the ass has apparently unseated Balaam and, with her back turned to him, is forthrightly speaking her mind in the direction of the angel. Her pink tongue extending from her open mouth invites us to imagine her noisy defiance. She is not a frightened animal. The V-shaped addition to Balaam’s forehead perhaps borrows from depictions of Moses wearing horns—the consequence of the late fourth-century Vulgate mistranslation of a Hebrew word in Exodus 34:29–35, which can mean both ‘shining’ and ‘horned’. Context makes it clear that ‘shining’ is intended, but artistic tradition followed Jerome in turning Moses’s shining face into a horned head. Would Miss Lassie have been inspired by versions of this in locally available books illustrated with Western religious art, or has she playfully shown the speaking ass to be more resourceful than the man with animal features? The angel, clad in white picked out with gold, could credibly adorn a Christmas tree. She is impassive and doll-like, her crown balancing Balaam’s horns. A glowing sun in a bright blue sky forms a backdrop to the three figures, while a row of sturdy flowering plants in strong colours, echoing the native plant life of the islands, appears in the foreground. A linking motif in the whole composition is the use of yellow-gold in the angel’s costume, the flowers, the labelling of the subject, and in the bolder of the artist’s two signatures. This device traces the dynamic interplay of divine presence, scripture, natural life, and artistic creativity. References Jefferson, Lee M. 2023. ‘The Horns of Moses, May 03, 2023’, Bible History Daily, available at https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/the-horns-of-moses/ [accessed 22 July 2024]