Station of the Cross No. 2: "The Cross is Laid on Jesus" c. 1936

William Herbert’s "Station of the Cross No. 2: The Cross is Laid on Jesus" is a watercolour painting made sometime in the 20th century, and it really grabs me with its handmade quality. The colours feel muted, almost like faded frescos. Herbert’s use of watercolour creates a slightly translucent, almost ghostly effect. The layering of washes gives depth, but also this sense of things emerging and receding. Take a look at the way he renders the figures carrying the cross, there is something so delicate in the choice of colour, but then also robust in the direct, almost childlike outlining. It reminds me of some early Renaissance paintings, like Giotto, where the storytelling is direct and emotional, but it also prefigures later artists like Redon, who are looking for symbolic and mythological forms. Herbert seems to be inviting us to consider art as a space where different eras and modes of expression can meet. In this space, fixed meanings dissolve into a play of ideas.