concept:era modern
The Light of the World
Oil on canvas over panel (1851–1856) by William Holman Hunt. Keble College, Oxford (original). Christ wearing a crown of thorns carrying a lantern, knocking at an overgrown door that has no external handle. Full-scale replica (1904) at St Paul's Cathedral, London.
Scholarly Significance
Most widely reproduced religious painting in Victorian Britain; canonical statement of Hunt's scriptural-naturalist programme.