Saint Mary of Egypt

 These three panels together by Emile Nolde are called "Saint Mary of Egypt". They Depict a story of Mary, who in first panel, above, is actually not a saint, but a prostitute who heard of a group of people who were going to pillage a church. She thought she could make a lot of money off of the men who would be there, so the first picture is of her dancing for some of the men.

 This panel of the triptych is showing when Mary wanted to enter the church, but something inside of her wouldn't let her enter. She fell to her knees and threw up her hands in begging for forgiveness for the way she has been living her life. 

Mary had made a personal promise to God that for forgiveness for her earlier behavior in her life, she would be bound to live in the desert for the rest of her life, never to return to society. This panel shows a monk who has come across Mary, heard her story and wants to take her back and help clean her up. But Mary refuses. She does ask the monk to come back in exactly one year to visit her. In one year, the monk comes back to find Mary's body dead. He tries to dig a hole to give her a proper burial, but can't because he is digging in the sand. The lion walks up and helps the man bury Mary once and for all.

This painting, to me, is a perfect example of how people can change when they are changed by God and not by their own decisions. This is an amazing and inspiring story for anyone to hear or to see. Emile's use of harsh color makes it all the more eye-catching and able to draw in a viewer who may need to see this piece of art. He also uses aggressive and reckless brush strokes, the harsh color, and the distortion of the faces and forms to portray the sinful ora that is about this piece. The viewer can also see Nolde's intense passion for this piece and for the message it portrays. He is seen to have strong feelings about this situation and these goings on in Europe at the time and this was his way of illuminating his thoughts and sharing them with whomever would take the time out to study his painting.