The Light of the World (Hunt)

The Light of the World is an allegorical painting completed between 1851 and 1854 by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt. It represents Jesus Christ preparing to knock on an overgrown, long-unopened door, illustrating the verse from Revelation 3:20 in which Christ says he stands at the door and knocks, ready to enter if anyone opens it. The door in the painting has no external handle, so it can be opened only from within, a detail Hunt intended to represent what he called the obstinately shut mind. Hunt described painting the picture as an act of what he felt, however unworthy, to be a divine command rather than simply the choice of a good subject, and the work was considered by many of its time to be the most important and culturally influential rendering of Christ. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/