The ark was placed in the Temple in the Holy of Holies, the most sacred of areas. It was shielded with a veil that the High Priest would enter only once a year. A part of Catholic theology that is less well-known is how there is a parallel Ark of the Covenant in the New Testament. It's Mary. She is the Ark of the Covenant. The New Covenant. The parallels are strikingly similar between the two.
Let's break down the similarities and analyze them further.
Inspiration Behind Ark of the Covenants After I researched modern Catholic artists, I discovered the work of Michael Schrauzer. Click here to be taken to his website to view his gallery of work. His paintings are quiet and meditative- two attributes that I wanted to infuse into this piece. Most importantly though, a lot of his pieces had wood doors that opened and revealed inner scenes. They were very reminiscent of a tabernacle, which holds the Eucharist near the altar in Catholic churches. Since Mary (who carried Jesus in her womb) can also be seen as a tabernacle, I wanted this symbolism in this piece as well. As a result, I designed multiple doors that with each opening, revealed a new, inner layer. Sketching Out Design You can see from my sketches that I originally designed the left side/Old Testament side to be a square and the right side/New Testament side to be a rectangle. A square is symbolic of the earth while a rectangle could be based off Fibonacci proportions (which indicates perfection found in nature, a fitting idea to show the perfection found in Mary). However, as I fleshed out the design, I realized that the different shapes created a visual separation between the two arks, the opposite of my intention. I wanted to show the similarity so I decided to keep both sides as rectangles. I enjoy packing as much symbolism as I can into my artworks but I'm learning that there is a limit, especially if it's hurting the main goal of the piece. You may have noticed that the left/Old Testament side of Ark of the Covenants uses physical objects while the right/New Testament side uses paint to represent actions or people. This is because the left side focuses on man-made objects like the veil that separated the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the (Old) Covenant, and the contents of the Ark like the rod of Aaron, the Ten Commandments, and manna. They were all man's way of representing God's presence on earth. However, in the New Testament, God is creating His own symbolism. He chooses to have people personify the Ark and its content. I thought that the best way to symbolize this was to render everything in paint so there'd be a contrast with all of the objects on the left. Meaning of the Outer Doors
Meaning of the Middle Doors
Meaning of the Innermost Level
Meaning of Colors Complementary colors, when placed close to each other, enhance each other's intensity. Kind of like how, when you place both the arks next to each other, they enhance each other and bring out their fullest meaning. I thought this concept was particularly fitting for this piece so I use complementary colors on each level. On some levels, it's not readily apparent what the dominant color is, like in the sunrise/sunset panel on the first level. However, once your brain recognizes the purple peaking through the mantilla on the left side, the yellow on the right side will automatically seem brighter. Outer doors: purple (it's behind the mantilla) and yellow Middle doors: orange (the photos makes it look mainly brown) and blue Innermost level: green and red (but it's more pink because the little baby is pink) Slideshow
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