El Buen Pastor 

Editor: Here we have Vicente Juan Masip's "El Buen Pastor", or "The Good Shepherd," a gorgeous oil painting. The lamb is precious! What jumps out at you about this work? Curator: Oh, but precious can be deceiving, can’t it? Think of the weight that little lamb carries – innocence, purity, a stand-in for all of humanity, if you like. For me, the interesting thing here is in the painter’s choices: how do you show the divine? He chose this softly rendered face, this… halo implied more than drawn. I imagine it reflecting something deeply felt for him; do you see it, that quiet contemplation? Editor: I think I do! The Good Shepherd is the caring, watchful leader... that almost Renaissance ideal of combining strength with gentle wisdom? Curator: Precisely. Now look at how the lamb is held: both safe and perhaps…a little burdened? Look at its trusting face against the coming storm, which to me evokes all those dilemmas and challenges of faith, beautifully and rather melancholically represented. How does it make you feel now? Editor: Definitely less "precious" and more like a visual poem, loaded with meaning. I see the weight now, literally and figuratively. Curator: Glad to have taken you there. Maybe art’s real magic lies in seeing more clearly both our ideals, and also our ever-so-human fears. It certainly makes this 'Good Shepherd' more like a complicated friend than some dusty old picture, eh? Editor: Exactly! Thanks for helping me look closer.