Peter, Friedrich - Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

Friedrich Peter: The Cleansing of the Temple, John 2:13-22

by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

This digital work by the German Canadian artist Friedrich Peter pictures the cleansing of the temple in an expressive manner. After a long life of design, calligraphy, and painting in water colours, also as an instructor at the Academy of Art in Vancouver, Canada, Peter reached for digital art when an illness forced him to stay inside. He strove for spontaneity and ‘blessed effortlessness’ in these works.

Jesus, with a red face and a pink whip, rises high in the upper right of the picture. He kicks over the table, causing the cage of the dove to break open and enabling the dove to escape. One man, a bull, and a sheep also run away in the face of Jesus’ holy anger. The ignominious money box, exactly in the middle of the picture, will be smashed to pieces, as Jesus cannot endure to see his Father’s House sunk to the level of a marketplace. God does not tolerate other gods beside himself.