Enoch the Righteous (Genesis Golden Age) 2017

Curator: It looks like something between a stained-glass window and a storybook illustration, doesn’t it? Editor: Yes, quite! Let’s explore Joe Machine's "Enoch the Righteous (Genesis Golden Age)" from 2017, rendered with tempera paint. Tell me more, it clearly depicts a biblical narrative. Curator: Exactly! I feel transported to a Sunday school in some long-lost land. It evokes this peculiar mixture of solemnity and childlike wonder. The characters have such earnest, gentle faces... as if plucked straight from a dream. It speaks to our ancient desires. Editor: What fascinates me is how this echoes early Renaissance workshop production. The flat planes of color, the explicit underdrawing – it reveals so much about the making. This isn't slick oil painting attempting illusionism. It’s paint as paint, line as line, constructing an image laboriously. And look – is that actual Hebrew inscribed on that scroll? The raw effort in transcription! Curator: Absolutely, it's pure, isn’t it? What a beautiful juxtaposition with that little lamb at Enoch's feet – a traditional symbol of innocence, mirroring the clarity of the scene. It all vibrates with faith. Editor: Faith, or perhaps devotion. To material and tradition as much as religion itself. Note the tempera, a paint bound by egg yolk. How differently we value such skills and material investment now in our digital era! Think, even of how "copying" and studying other masterworks was how academic traditions transmitted their style over long periods of history. Curator: Interesting! I’m left contemplating my own origin, like the kneeling scribe carefully recording these ancient mysteries... such is life? We all have a purpose in time! Editor: Agreed. We can appreciate the role of an artist channeling history through meticulous craft and choice of materials. The labor is not merely pictorial but intensely philosophical and socially evocative as well.