Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight 1894

Claude Monet captured the West Facade of Rouen Cathedral with oil on canvas, focusing not on the stone itself, but on sunlight’s transformative touch. The cathedral, a bastion of faith, is here draped in an ephemeral cloak of light. Consider the arch, a motif stretching back to Roman triumphal arches and even earlier, to sacred gateways in ancient civilizations. The archway is not merely structural; it symbolizes transition, a passage from the earthly to the divine. In Christian iconography, it often frames scenes of baptism or ascension, marking a pivotal spiritual threshold. Monet’s cathedral, dissolving into a play of light and shadow, evokes a sense of longing, a yearning for the eternal. The very act of painting the facade repeatedly, obsessively, mirrors humanity's enduring quest to capture the intangible. Like moths to a flame, we are drawn to the numinous glow, forever seeking answers in the dance of light and stone. The cathedral as a symbol of time endures, reminding us of both our mortality and our collective memory.