BEHOLD a PALE HORSE

"Behold a Pale Horse" by Troy's Work Table. Carport chalking for Friday 04 December 2015.

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"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
—Revelation 6:8 (KJV)

Or as the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates it: "a pale green horse."

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I had three paintings I was using as reference. I had reproductions of two in front of me and the other I was imagining as I remember it.

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1. "A noble Danish horse in its splendid livery." Mixed media on paper. By Icelandic artist Sölvi Helgason.

There is no livery here. This horse runs free, treading over skulls and bones.

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2. María Luisa Mounted on Marcial. Oil on canvas, 1799. By Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes.

Likewise, there is no rider here—neither María Luisa nor Death—and no saddle and no rein.

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3. The Burning Stable. Oil on canvas. By German artist Adolf Schreyer.

This is the one I had to imagine. My horse captures nothing of the Schreyer painting. This painting of his is part of the permanent collection of the Frye Art Museum and the horses in the painting are trying to flee a fire in the barn, bursting forth from the stable and threatening to flee the canvas as they come at the viewer. But its one of the few paintings I can see without having to be in its presence. It is so visceral, so alive. (Although I always make an effort to view it for a few minutes if it is on display when I am at the Frye.)

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For me, this feels of a piece with my other "death ritual" chalkings. Although the reference is Christian, I can imagine the pale green horse riding through the carnage of the Battle of the Nine Rivers—Revelation traded for Ragnorök.

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View more photographs of "Behold a Pale Horse" HERE.