ART AND THE PROPHET

HABAKKUK (Part One) by

Paul Henrickson, Ph.D. tm 2014 offered by
THE CREATIVITY PACKET

THE CREATIVITY PACKET IS INTRODUCING A REPORT ON THE CREATION OF PAUL HENRICKSONS
HABAKKUK..THE PROPHET WHO BROKERED THE FALL OF ISRAEL

Habakkuk was a prophet just prior to the exile of the Hebrews to Babylon The function of a prophet, it might be said, is to show others the
consequences of behaviour. On the other hand the function of an artist, it might be said, is to so arrange visual elements beyond the customary
expectation, so the observer might affect a logical reassembly.
The problem for the artist, in this case, was not to illustrate incidents in the prophets life experience as done by earlier artists but to portray the levels
of psychic anxieties a prophet suffers as he becomes increasingly aware of the relationship between cause and effect sensing the doom that is the
consequence of neglect. and, for this artist, to accomplish it by means of the oceanic and the detail, the swell and the spray, the non-objective and the
substantive, the general and the specific, the composite and the singular, the aggregate and the unique...in combination.
Both types of opposing efforts, it would seem, possess a heuristic characteristic at the level of the most common denominator to keep the mind
functioning analytically. Appropriate results are only a hope and not at all certain.
One question is...how does one cast, or reconstruct, in symbolic form the psychic and mental complications of a man in converse with God?
Habakkuk was thought, by some, to have been a Levite. The Levites who were not Kohanim played music in the Temple or served as guards. It is this
position some believe Habakkuk played in as much as there is at the end of the book of Habakkuk there seem to be what some see as musical notations.
While such evidence should not be over looked it occurs to me that only if the reader assumes it was Habakkuk, and only Habakkuk, who is the author
would it be moderately sure it had been his position in the temple. It would be more sure, I believe, that were he a musician for the temple that the
book attributed to him was not a part of his job description, but an off-duty occupation since its narrative was so unusual (a mortal arguing with God). Hence, it seems,
we might look more closely at might have been his personality type...a type concerned with regularity. autistic perhaps?...highly energetic about setting
things right? Or, is Habakkuk simply a normal fellow uncomfortable when the environment is a bit irregular?
Now, just a short diversion: If we look at mans graphic creations I think we can assume that, at some point, the man thought the work good,
satisfactory, complete (for whatever the purpose).
A prehistoric cave painting of a bull (c.30,000 years BC) The remarkable characteristic of the cave
paintings at Lascaux and Altamira is the high degree of observation and the visual and manual coordination they display. When it
came to representing himself on the walls of caves it seems that he had been limited to the use of stick figures and silhouettes of
hands. If anthropologists are correct in their belief that the drawings of animals was done so well was related to
the survival relationship between man and the animal. In some unsophisticated societies today there may be found a resistance to having a photograph
made, or taken, on the grounds that it captures ones soul and so some have thought that the picturing of the animal wanted in the
hunt would assure a successful effort.
On the other hand, today, world leaders are rather fond of the idea and, presumably, believe it may have some connection with their
permanence.
Also, today, as before, there seems to be an attempt on the part of some genealogists to establish blood connections to those beings
considered by some to be gods, such as Zeus, Odin and Thor . Now, perplexingly, these last two gods appear to have been
descendants of the Kings of Turkey. Well, whilethat doesseemlikea promotion of sortsitslater repetition in Rome, whereit appears, becomingdivine wasdependedupon a voteof theSenate.
That apotheotic systemraisesseriousquestionsabout thevalidityof academic C.Vsandother measuresof social worth tosay nothingof thelegitimacyof theclaimof omnipotence of alordwhosepriestshavethemost
to gain bytheobedient sufferanceof others. It beginsto look verymuch likeascam.
On the other hand, however, regardless of his beliefs the cave painter produced some admirable work and Habakkuk has offered us
a frighteningly perplexed personality to depict .
With such a range of beliefs concerning the effectiveness of images there seems to be only two choices left, that of the art critic whose
Yea or nay may be purchased by some sexual dalliance or that of Yhwh dont make any images...except for medicinal
purposes. (cf Moses and the column of serpents)., for which reason we today have the symbol for the medical professionor a more
elaborated version by James Nathan Muir both of these images , mankind is biblically warned, ought not to be considered what is
called works of art today, but yesterday may have been treated as representations of Gods and, therefore, idolatrise. That term a work of art
should be reserved for those productions which are the results of active investigation, not the use of cult symbols whose meaning is largely already
established. That is one reason why the wounded Bull (below) is art and the bronze above (regardless of its immense size) an expression of an established cult
language.
Wounded Bull Henrickson\
It is important, of course, that points of view are determined so better to understand what one is told. In this regard the following interview by Alan
Kokesh of a lady in favour of Hillary Clinton<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOtGmZAUiME&list=TLybJ2cogmBeUorNubspUAJcL9st2reS9s> is instructive.
In this regard (that is knowing what you are doing) one of the marks of a creative artist is his willingness to explore several avenues of approach to the solution
of whatever the problem that concerns him as well as to developmentally push one, or several of these, as far as he is able.
One of the more revealing of Picassos comments regarding how the public viewed his work is paraphrased here. In surprise he
stated They seem to accept anything I do. And yet, and this is vital, he knew what he was doing. There was always a constructive
control, an imposition of order, even though even though its final image may have been unconventional. Eliminating the influence
of convention in a creative work of art by controlled degrees is imperative. That is, it is so, if the objective is to produce a creative
image. In this respect even the rather aimless swatches of Paul Jenkins have a value in the breaking loose of constraints which have
been introduced by instruction. . Doing so is always a bit bewildering, but in the end a new order is established and that is the
main point...the order that one creates for oneself can be, it seems, the only basis upon which a creative effort can be based.
From Picassos comment I would judge that the application of his evaluatively critical sense had gone through some hiatus and he, as well as those
around him, were testing the waters of public response and discovered that much of the public response was more clearly based on its need for
divergent attraction or, at least, other than on otherwise established and conventional presentation with which some of the public had become bored.
However disappointing to some the end result of this iconoclastic revolution for humanity was a distinct broadening of the acceptable field of images
and that, among other discoveries, the human mind was capable of bringing order to chaos no matter what the circumstances. In short, It was
discovered , and the discovery accepted, there was not only one route to the finish line.
Picassos three approaches to bull making
(above)
are useful in demonstrating the
flexibility of mind set available to the twentieth century artist which, one assumes, may not have been available to man 30,000 years ago. In the first of
the three examples we get a relatively correct outline of the animal with a cubist overlay. Both the outline and the overlay are accomplished with great
assurance and personal awareness of what is being done.

The bicycle seat and handle bars are a transmutation of form and function bearing considerable humor. In its way an illustration of how a bicycle
rider may transform from a biped peddling (or the parts of the bicycle with which the person is in closest contact) may transform into the head and horns of a bull and,
finally, the bullish human male who ravishes a sleeping female. It will be noticed that while the anatomy of the male is accomplished with a remarkable
surety of detail in line the head of the bull is the only part of the drawing which has been brought to a textural completion.
Henricksons Wounded Bull brings the divisibility of conceptual approach to a subject yet another step, but beginning the process of separating the
subject matter (a bull) from the art medium used, water and pigment. It is almost by magical accident that this splash of water and pigment have
emerged into the shape of a bull.
While there are still a significant percentage of the art audience who prefer a stricter adherence to the appearance of nature they, I think, might find it
awkward to try to adjust to the presnce of such fish and sea worms as these:

These fish are unbelievably colored and patterned. and provoke the questions, what was Gods motivation to give lisence? to
provoke inventiveness? That is one, seemingly valid, conclusion.
Now, to shift focus some what.The illustration below shows is a non-objective design in a triptyck setting.

A non-objective triptyck by Paul Henrickson PAPIER MACHE IN THE ROUGH
When certain worldly dark powers decided to play say uncle with true believers and havoc the worlds economic, and political system I was faced, as many others as well,
with grave decisions regarding how their various interests might continue unabated. they didnt continue, of course. not as they were.They got tranformed by the
same mind set that resists being regularized
In consequence I dropped bees wax and clay and reapproached paper.
This, as it turned out, also meant I needed to make other adjustments. At least in my hands paper machee is not a refined medium. This situation offered me the opportunity to
work big. Working big, however, with maquettes intended to be cast in bronze has some severe economic cnsequences as well, in some cases, some limitations of physical
facilities.
These are two of main stages of investigative searching into the possibilities of a new (for me) technique. Certainly wire frame and paper mache is more flexible than rock and
much easier as well. and less expensive than clay or bees wax., although these others, as Rodin might attest, allow for finer distinctions. But then, of course, must be added
consideration for the personality of the one at work whose every movement and decision betrays who he is.
It is this fact that makes art criticism, for me, so fascinating.(See my observattions on Cezanne, Caravaggio, Ryder and Marin on www.scribd.com)


Some years earlier, before the cost of living (after 9/11) started to rise (as early as 1964), I had reacted to the theory that anything with which an individual came into contact would
carry away with it some of the traces of that contact and on that basis (but not only) I made a few assemblages of the items shipped with my personal belongings to Guam where
I had gone as a process of ridding myself of a cannibalistic marriage. Here is one of the reassembled and redefined packaging of such an item.
Just prior to the involvment in Papier Mache I regarded the weekly repeated collection of geometric packaging our daily lives engender and lamented that waste deeply until it
occurred to me that I might use them.
It is true that I had started to use cast off material some 40 years earlier, but at that time it was more a therapeutic act rather than one governmed by a creative curiosity.
One of more than a score of painted sculptures called The Toilet Paper Roll Series
Some of the same concern for a redefinition of material is to be seen in Henricksons more recent toilet paper roll sculptures[which he began around 2003],
but earlier efforts dated around 1976 such as this former screen door and egg carton assemblage
where he has not altered the original shape of these commercial containers but brought them into a new environment, a new configuration and changing their purposes. It could
be argued that as parts of a sculpture they have more value than as holders for toilet paper, and at the same time joined some of the characteristics of sculpture (which isa three-
dimensional form) and painting (which is a two-dimensional expression)
Henricksons portrait of Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven, c.2001
This is a more traditional approach to sculpture and is remarkable in several ways. The model (Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven) did not sit and Henrickson did the piece after he
had left New Mexico and had taken residence in Malta. In short, it was done from memory and Henrickson admits that parts of his motivation was to outdo Una Hanbury, a
well-known English sculptress who had done a commissioned portrait of Concha and which Henrickson had found wanting.
Hanbury, who had taken residence in Santa Fe and managed to manoeuvre her way into parts of the influential community and maintained a box at the Santa Fe horse racing
loupe where a lot of money frequently changed hands. And of course, where there is money, there is ego, where there is ego there may be commissions.
I personally very much object to such a scenario being used to determine the value inherent in a creative product...a product which, under the best conditions, is one effect of the
ineffable holy spirit sometimes guiding human kind.


This aquatint by Henrickson done while he was teaching at Radford University (Virginia) and using a student as a model (more or less) was an attempt to make a portrait with as few references
to the actual head as he found possible. In a sense by depicting what is by referencing what was not. Having reacted to the untrustworthy behaviours of my erstwhile governors
which after 2008 had a profound effect on the world economy I could no longer (being a Social Security pensioner) afford to buy some of the materials I had previously used for some of my
work, so, I shifted gears, went into low and pulled harder and selected wire and paper as the best available...and flour, of course (which meant for me as it did for the French poor prior to the
revolution that bread was no longer part of my diet).
However, that unfortunate situation, together, of course, with some of my more personal qualities led me into perceptual areas where before I had never been and thus, the
work, larger, more expansive, a more developed theatrical presence and somehow or other a shift in subject matter from that of the intimate private chamber to the city square,
...from the charming and seductive to the condemning, consequential and retributional.
.An example of the latter is the work depicting Innocent III (to the right) in the torment in justly deserves
Innocent III I am including this anonymous flute player here as a means of calling the readers attention to the existence of a fomral similarity that calls
atttention to their aesthetic relationship. Both have, to a not greatly varying extent have created a work based on the controlled variations of a single basic form, in general, a sausage form. Limiting the visual
vocabulary in this way has the benefits of unifying the vision. Playing upon and developing controlled variations of this limited form becomes the aesthetic focus.When aesthetic varations of this type appear , in all
the arts, become a decive for consolidation.. I do not know the provenance of this flute player, but would suppose it to be prehistoric and probably as old as the Cycladic ones (shown below), but
less refined.


Count Roger and Malta
Another of Henricksons pieces one of which he is particularly fond was one based on Maltas history which involved one of Henricksons fathers ancestors through Roger I,
Count of Sicily whose son Roger II, the King of Sicilys daughter married Henry VI Hohenstaufen an ancestor of Henricksons mother.
Henrickson found it magically odd that he should, without prior knowledge, choose as his European home the place where the ancestors of both his parents had several hundred
years earlier, wed and lived and wher4e in 1091 Count Roger de Hauteville had successfully brought Malta into a political union with Europe it had not known previosly.
Was there something, he thought, that destiny had in mind for him to finish that they had begun? Certainly there are always modes of cultural development in civil behaviour
that are possible and needful. Malta has a host of civilizing needs.
PAPIER MACHE IN THE ROUGH
When certain worldly dark powers decided to play say uncle with true believers and havoc the worlds economic, and political system I was faced, as many others as well,
with grave decisions regarding how their various interests might continue unabated. they didnt continue, of course. not as they were.They got tranformed by the
same mind set that resists being regularized
In consequence I dropped bees wax and clay and reapproached paper.
This, as it turned out, also meant I needed to make other adjustments. At least in my hands paper machee is not a refined medium. This situation offered me the opportunity to
work big. Working big, however, with maquettes intended to be cast in bronze has some severe economic cnsequences as well, in some cases, some limitations of physical
facilities.
These are two of main stages of investigative searching into the possibilities of a new (for me) technique. Certainly wire frame and paper mache is more flexible than rock and
much easier as well. and less expensive than clay or bees wax., although these others, as Rodin might attest, allow for finer distinctions. But then, of course, must be added
consideration for the personality of the one at work whose every movement and decision betrays who he is.
It is this fact that makes art criticism, for me, so fascinating.(See my observattions on Cezanne, Caravaggio, Ryder and Marin on www.scribd.com)


Some years earlier, before the cost of living (after 9/11) started to rise (as early as 1964), I had reacted to the theory that anything with which an individual came into contact would
carry away with it some of the traces of that contact and on that basis (but not only) I made a few assemblages of the items shipped with my personal belongings to Guam where
I had gone as a process of ridding myself of a cannibalistic marriage. Here is one of the reassembled and redefined packaging of such an item.
Just prior to the involvment in Papier Mache I regarded the weekly repeated collection of geometric packaging our daily lives engender and lamented that waste deeply until it
occurred to me that I might use them.
It is true that I had started to use cast off material some 40 years earlier, but at that time it was more a therapeutic act rather than one governmed by a creative curiosity.
One of more than a score of painted sculptures called The Toilet Paper Roll Series
Some of the same concern for a redefinition of material is to be seen in Henricksons more recent toilet paper roll sculptures[which he began around 2003],
but earlier efforts dated around 1976 such as this former screen door and egg carton assemblage
where he has not altered the original shape of these commercial containers but brought them into a new environment, a new configuration and changing their purposes. It could
be argued that as parts of a sculpture they have more value than as holders for toilet paper, and at the same time joined some of the characteristics of sculpture (which isa three-
dimensional form) and painting (which is a two-dimensional expression)
Henricksons portrait of Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven, c.2001
This is a more traditional approach to sculpture and is remarkable in several ways. The model (Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven) did not sit and Henrickson did the piece after he
had left New Mexico and had taken residence in Malta. In short, it was done from memory and Henrickson admits that parts of his motivation was to outdo Una Hanbury, a
well-known English sculptress who had done a commissioned portrait of Concha and which Henrickson had found wanting.
Hanbury, who had taken residence in Santa Fe and managed to manoeuvre her way into parts of the influential community and maintained a box at the Santa Fe horse racing
loupe where a lot of money frequently changed hands. And of course, where there is money, there is ego, where there is ego there may be commissions.
I personally very much object to such a scenario being used to determine the value inherent in a creative product...a product which, under the best conditions, is one effect of the
ineffable holy spirit sometimes guiding human kind.

This aquatint by Henrickson done while he was teaching at Radford University (Virginia) and using a student as a model (more or less) was an attempt to make a portrait with as few references
to the actual head as he found possible. In a sense by depicting what is by referencing what was not. Having reacted to the untrustworthy behaviours of my erstwhile governors
which after 2008 had a profound effect on the world economy I could no longer (being a Social Security pensioner) afford to buy some of the materials I had previously used for some of my
work, so, I shifted gears, went into low and pulled harder and selected wire and paper as the best available...and flour, of course (which meant for me as it did for the French poor prior to the
revolution that bread was no longer part of my diet).
However, that unfortunate situation, together, of course, with some of my more personal qualities led me into perceptual areas where before I had never been and thus, the
work, larger, more expansive, a more developed theatrical presence and somehow or other a shift in subject matter from that of the intimate private chamber to the city square,
...from the charming and seductive to the condemning, consequential and retributional.
.An example of the latter is the work depicting Innocent III (to the right) in the torment in justly deserves
Innocent III I am including this anonymous flute player here as a means of calling the readers attention to the existence of a fomral similarity that calls
atttention to their aesthetic relationship. Both have, to a not greatly varying extent have created a work based on the controlled variations of a single basic form, in general, a sausage form. Limiting the visual
vocabulary in this way has the benefits of unifying the vision. Playing upon and developing controlled variations of this limited form becomes the aesthetic focus.When aesthetic varations of this type appear , in all
the arts, become a decive for consolidation.. I do not know the provenance of this flute player, but would suppose it to be prehistoric and probably as old as the Cycladic ones (shown below), but
less refined.


Count Roger and Malta
Another of Henricksons pieces one of which he is particularly fond was one based on Maltas history which involved one of Henricksons fathers ancestors through Roger I,
Count of Sicily whose son Roger II, the King of Sicilys daughter married Henry VI Hohenstaufen an ancestor of Henricksons mother.
Henrickson found it magically odd that he should, without prior knowledge, choose as his European home the place where the ancestors of both his parents had several hundred
years earlier, wed and lived and wher4e in 1091 Count Roger de Hauteville had successfully brought Malta into a political union with Europe it had not known previosly.
Was there something, he thought, that destiny had in mind for him to finish that they had begun? Certainly there are always modes of cultural development in civil behaviour
that are possible and needful. Malta has a host of civilizing needs.
end of Part One\

end of Part One .
HABAKKUK (part two)


With these three examples
.(above)
which are clearly related to the human figure, one might well wonder when the take offs from some aspects of the human figure will finally, if
ever, be liberated from the figure as a source.
In some subtle contrast these delightful Cycladic figures seem not to build on imagined characteristics of the subject but seem content
simply to report what seems to be there...without editorializing or elaborating on selected qualitities which we do see going on in this work by Bernini
Giovanni Bernini
The abstracted qualities of shape form and rhythmic relations which the artists have seen as qualities of the human figure stands in both sharp contrast and harmonic
concordance to the other qualities of the human figure which we see here. in the work of a varied selection of artists reinterpretations of visual reality.
StormTownsend Henry Moore Giocometti
Picasso Man with Lamb Henrickson: The Judas Kiss This is one of many
examples where the artist is not at all concerned about the appearance of external reality, but with the informative and expressive capability of graphic marks which had
nevcer found existence until water and pigment met human curiosity and then emerged as real. Henrickson: Head of Innocent III stressing the elongation of the crown with its laps
doubling as prophetic horns

The following four examples demonstrate how the subject matter, if any, has dissapeareed in favor simply of recorded gesture, and yet, this important
element in some works seems entirely absent in
Rodins Balzac . where the potential of gesture, the arms and legs are wrapped corpse-like in cloth. The major carrier of meaning is the slightly tilted up
and turned to the right head. There is no frenetic urgency here but rather, a reserved withdrawal. ...a defensive posture against intrusion by the masses.
There are similar concerns , but non-objective, found in the works below: Franz Kline
Sergio Majano
anon anon
Joining what one finds in the arena of the non-objective with what one has observed from the environemnt around one is not unlike combing different DNAs.
This is my depiction of the anguish which ought to be visited upon the spirit of Pope Innocent III for the crimes against
humanity which he personally, or had ordered to be performed upon those who disagreed with him on the several matters in which he involved
himself. He was, and his spirit still is, an arch enemy of mankind. In any event, aesthetically, the distortions from the physical reality to the image of
depicted moral anguish is the subject.

The image of Habakkuk, as a being with angelic wings as depicted on the bridge leading to El Castilo San Angelo near the Vatican (a former prison controlled
by the church for offenders)
This is an early representation of that part of the Habakkuk statue known as Chaos. A later one was thought to be
more characteristic of the state of being known as chaotic. The sphere (which had been, by the way, hand built) is there to represent order.
The sculptor Sera as , very importantly, added still another sense aspect to sculpture which meshes the usual sculptural isolation in space with the real space the human being
negotiates daily.
In regard to Rodins Gates of Hell it might, with justification, be said that his facility with rendering realistically human anatomical forms inhibited somewhat his approach
to developing an equally realistic composition,
It could be argued, with reason, that the present Gates of Hell composition even with its apparent addition of figures attached to the frame work of a door makes of the
door a static contributor.
Sculptural conception at the time did not encourage the sort of human interaction with the work as does that of Serna so any potential remained a potential.
do not wish to detract, in any way, Rodins accomplishment but only to point out what may have been its limitations and, consequently, the opportunities for others.

In the making of Habakkuk. I should think that one of the mysteries of the function of the human mind in behaving creativity is the howand the whyof shifts in focus, how one
thing gives license to another to be. become or to manifest.
I am certain, but I do not, for certain, know, that some of this occult processing gets through to the astute observer. As this sort of thing may be reflected in the highly respected reputation of Bruce Chatwin
to identify something genuine from something false. From report Chatwin was unique among his colleagues in this ability.
The creation of Habakkuk was from the very beginning fraught with conflicting obstacles. I would suppose that primarily among these was the tug of war between the urge to
be real and the need to be non-objective.
At last I recognize that the problem exists, at least for me, at least in some elementary level. I sense that there is between the emphasis on reality of August Rodin
and the rather blunt references to qualities in the work of Gustave Viegeland.
Perhaps the raving maenad of Greece may fit in there, somehow. End of Part Two

End of Part Two..
Part Three
HENRICKSONS HABAKKUK (Part four)
HENRICKSONS sculptural beginnings were about 50 years ago in Santa Fe, New Mexico after meeting a young man who seemed
to be in search of an explanation.
Like a fellow tongue-tied, this one could not bring himself to speak the words that could be used to describe his worry and so asked Henrickson to read a short story he had
written. Perhaps the literature was not a metaphor ,but merely some literary exercise for Henrickson could find nothing that helped explain what the fellow could not So,
Henrickson asked the fellow if he would model for him. He said that he could not, so, Henrickson. somewhat intrigued by this time worked on the problematic situation and
came up, finally, with this image he calls The Pregnant Man and placed the bronze on a rock stand in his front garden surrounded by low growing junipers. It was an
effective image of a lonely figure in psychic pain surrounded by a thick wall of impenetrable evergreens. of the front garden.
Expression, which, in one sense, art is all about, may be a highly complex and interactive process between the observer and the object observed. Below is a six piece rather
primitive attempt to illustrate what might possibly be one possible beginning of narrative. The repetition of the circular form within a changing environment may suggest
sequence of events that are somehow logically connected and it needs only someone to fill in the blanks....so to speak


My special name for this piece is Hi ! There! Good to See You Classical expression, especially, it seems, from a certain class of Roman, took on rather puerile sense of humor. With the Italian
Donatello, it would seem, more decorous to show a Biblical prophet, such as Habakkuk, with a greater degree of solemnity, although humor is still present in his having shown Habakkuk
as being bald. The indication here is that Donatello is telling us that since God found it necessary to send an angel to Habakkuk to have him do what he was asked and the angel finding
Habakkuk resistant lifted him by a lock of his hair to transport him. The Bible says nothing, of which I am aware, that the angel pulled the hair out The work is, fromthe
point of view of its illustrating aspects of prophets is undistinguished. What distinguishes the work are qualities that are unrelated to the lives of prophets. these are non-objective aspects of organization such as those suggested by this scheme.
Another set of essential expressions follows:
Storm Townsend Joy an inch worm a ballet leap
Placing these three
(above)
works together may, possibly, give the wrong impression. All I intend to do is to provide an explanation as to why certain lines, shapes, or what have you, tend to transmit the same basic
information . a ballet dancer is not an inch worm.
The quick sketch of the compositional layout of Habakkuk is here to, hopefully, make up for the difficulty in photographing the piece in
its entirety.
Although not originally conceived of as a narrative piece it turned in that direction as I struggled with how to conceptualize Habakkuks distress over the social and political
concerns of his time. In brief #1 represents Habakkuks horror, #2 represents the adversarial positions between order and chaos, #3 Habakkuks assistant, and #4 the deaths
head referencing that hope rises out of disaster.

From Habikkuk to order to assistant

From chaos toward Habikkuk whose arms appear twisted in terror Things are not always what they seem. Here Henrickson is advising Habakkuk to keep his te,per his view starts with the sphere which is order and looks
toward Habakkuk, his legs apart, sex displayed, and hair falling down in front of his face (It is I sitting normal to the right.)
From the side looking Habakkuk showing fear of order &chaos This one looking from the back of Habakkuks hairy head toward order supported by chaos toward
Habakkuks terrified assistant.
beneath the Deaths Head just assistant and the very end of the piece. From Habikkuk to Order to
Habakkkuks Assistant (at the top of the picture) with blocked out background which seems to increase foreshortening and (below) as it was, The second photo gives a
sense of its scale. The Deaths head is not visible because it is beneath the assistant.
side view

It should be kept in mind that this is , for me, an unusual attempt to narrate a series of events...the series of Habakkuks concern about the
social and political status of his place and his time ...just before the Hebraic capture and exodus to Babylon.
Well, we keep trying.

SOME MORE ON THE PROPHET
In the Hebrew text (i,1; iii, 1), the prophet's name presents a doubly intensive form Hbhqqq, which has not been preserved
either in the Septuagint: Ambakoum, or in the Vulgate: Habacuc. Its resemblance with the Assyrian hambakku, which is the name
of a plant, is obvious. Its exact meaning cannot be ascertained: it is usually taken to signify "embrace" and is at times explained as
"ardent embrace", on account of its intensive form. Of this prophet's birth-place, parentage, and life we have no reliable
information. The fact that in his book he is twice called "the prophet" (i, 1; iii, 1) leads indeed one to surmise that Habacuc held a
recognized position as prophet, but it manifestly affords no distinct knowledge of his person. Again, some musical particulars
connected with the Hebrew text of his Prayer (ch. iii) may possibly suggest that he was a member of the Temple choir, and
consequently a Levite: but most scholars regard this twofold inference as questionable. Hardly less questionable is the view
sometimes put forth, which identifies Habacuc with the Judean prophet of that name, who is described in the deuterocanonical
fragment of Bel and the Dragon (Daniel 14:32 sqq.), as miraculously carrying a meal to Daniel in the lion's den.
In this absence of authentic tradition, legend, not only Jewish but also Christian, has been singularly busy about the prophet
Habacuc. It has represented him as belonging to the tribe of Levi and as the son of a certain Jesus; as the child of the Sunamite
woman, whom Eliseus restored to life (cf. 2 Kings 4:16 sqq.); as the sentinel set by Isaias (cf. Isaiah 21:6; and Habakkuk 2:1) to
watch for the fall of Babylon. According to the "Lives" of the prophets, one of which is ascribed to St. Epiphanius, and the other to
Dorotheus, Habacuc was of the tribe of Simeon, and a native of Bethsocher, a town apparently in the tribe of Juda. In the same
works it is stated that when Nabuchodonosor came to besiege Jerusalem, the prophet fled to Ostrakine (now Straki, on the Egyptian
coast), whence he returned only after the Chaldeans had withdrawn; that he then lived as a husbandman in his native place, and
died there two years before Cyrus's edict of Restoration (538 B.C.). Different sites are also mentioned as his burial-place. The exact
amount of positive information embodied
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Habacuc (Habakkuk
(The following is excerpted from a report of Habakkuk in Biblical history)
Contents of prophecy
Apart from its short title (i, 1) the Book of Habacuc is commonly divided into two parts: the one (i,2-ii, 20) reads like a dramatic
dialogue between God and His prophet; the other (chap. iii) is a lyric ode, with the usual characteristics of a psalm. The first part
opens with Habacuc's lament to God over the protracted iniquity of the land, and the persistent oppression of the just by the
wicked, so that there is neither law nor justice in Juda: How long is the wicked thus destined to prosper? (i, 2-4). Yahweh replies (i,
5-11) that a new and startling display of His justice is about to take place: already the Chaldeans that swift, rapacious, terrible,
race are being raised up, and they shall put an end to the wrongs of which the prophet has complained. Then Habacuc
remonstrates with Yahweh, the eternal and righteous Ruler of the world, over the cruelties in which He allows the Chaldeans to
indulge (i, 12-17), and he confidently waits for a response to his pleading (ii, 1). God's answer (ii, 2-4) is in the form of a short oracle
(verse 4), which the prophet is bidden to write down on a tablet that all may read it, and which foretells the ultimate doom of the
Chaldean invader. Content with this message, Habacuc utters a taunting song, triumphantly made up of five "woes" which he
places with dramatic vividness on the lips of the nations whom the Chaldean has conquered and desolated (ii, 5-20). The second part
of the book (chap. iii) bears the title: "A prayer of Habacuc, the prophet, to the music of Shigionot." Strictly speaking, only the
second verse of this chapter has the form of a prayer. The verses following (3-16) describe a theophany in which Yahweh appears for
no other purpose than the salvation of His people and the ruin of His enemies. The ode concludes with the declaration that even
though the blessings of nature should fail in the day of dearth, the singer will rejoice in Yahweh (17-19). Appended to chap. iii is the
statement: "For the chief musician, on my stringed instruments."
Date and authorship
Owing chiefly to the lack of reliable external evidence, there has been in the past, and there is even now, a great diversity of opinions
concerning the date to which the prophecy of Habacuc should be ascribed. Ancient rabbis, whose view is embodied in the Jewish
chronicle entitled Seder olam Rabbah, and is still accepted by many Catholic scholars (Kaulen, Zschokke, Knabenbauer, Schenz,
Cornely, etc.), refer the composition of the book to the last years of Manasses's reign. Clement of Alexandria says that "Habacuc
still prophesied in the time of Sedecias" (599-588 B.C.), and St. Jerome ascribes the prophecy to the time of the Babylonian Exile.
Some recent scholars (Delitzsch and Keil among Protestants, Danko, Rheinke, Holzammer, and practically also Vigouroux, among
Catholics, place it under Josias (641-610 B.C.). Others refer it to the time of Joakim (610-599 B.C.), either before Nabuchodonosor's
victory at Carchemish in 605 B.C. (Catholic: Schegg, Haneberg; Protestant: Schrader, S. Davidson, Knig, Strack, Driver, etc.);
while others, mostly out-and-out rationalists, ascribe it to the time after the ruin of the Holy City by the Chaldeans. As might be
expected, these various views do not enjoy the same amount of probability, when they are tested by the actual contents of the Book
of Habacuc. Of them all, the one adopted by St. Jerome, and which is now that propounded by many rationalists, is decidedly the
least probable: to ascribe, as that view does, the book to the Exile, is, on the one hand, to admit for the text of Habacuc an historical
background to which there is no real reference in the prophecy, and, on the other, to ignore the prophet's distinct references to
events connected with the period beforethe Bablyonian Captivity (cf. i, 2-4, 6, etc.). All the other opinions have their respective
degrees of probability, so that it is no easy matter to choose among them. It seems, however, that the view which ascribes the book to
605-600 B.C. "is best in harmony with the historical circumstances under which the Chaldeans are presented in the prophecy of
Habacuc, viz. as a scourge which is imminent for Juda, and as oppressors whom all know have already entered upon the inheritance
of their predecessors" (Van Hoonacker).
During the nineteenth century, objections have oftentimes been made against the genuineness of certain portions of the Book of
Habacuc. In the first part of the work, the objections have been especially directed against i, 5-11. But, however formidable they
may appear at first sight, the difficulties turn out to be really weak, on a closer inspection; and in point of fact, the great majority of
critics look upon them as not decisive. The arguments urged against the genuineness of chapter ii, 9-20, are of less weight still. Only
in reference to chapter iii, which forms the second part of the book, can there be a serious controversy as to its authorship by
Habacuc. Many critics treat the whole chapter as a late and independent poem, with no allusions to the circumstances of Habacuc's
time, and still bearing in its liturgical heading and musical directions (vv. 3, 9, 13, 19) distinct marks of the collection of sacred songs
from which it was taken. According to them, it was appended to the Book of Habacuc because it had already been ascribed to him in
the title, just as certain psalms are still referred in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate to some prophets. Others, indeed in smaller
number, but also with greater probability, regard only the last part of the chapter iii, 17-19 as a later addition to Habacuc's work: in
reference to this last part only does it appear true to say that it has no definite allusions to the circumstances of Habacuc's time. All
things considered, it seems that the question whether chapter iii be an original portion of the prophecy of Habacuc, or an
independent poem appended to it at a later date, cannot be answered with certainty: too little is known in a positive manner
concerning the actual circumstances in the midst of which Habacuc composed his work, to enable one to feel confident that this
portion of it must or must not be ascribed to the same author as the rest of the book.
Literary and textual features
In the composition of his book, Habacuc displays a literary power which has often been admired. His diction is rich and classical,
and his imagery is striking and appropriate. The dialogue between God and him is highly oratorical, and exhibits to a larger extent
than is commonly supposed, the parallelism of thought and expression which is the distinctive feature of Hebrew poetry. The
Mashal or taunting song of five "woes" which follows the dialogue, is placed with powerful dramatic effect on the lips of the nations
whom the Chaldeans have cruelly oppressed. The lyric ode with which the book concludes, compares favourably in respect to
imagery and rhythm with the best productions of Hebrew poetry. These literary beauties enable us to realize that Habacuc was a
writer of high order. They also cause us to regret that the original text of his prophecy should not have come down to us in all its
primitive perfection. As a matter of fact, recent interpreters of the book have noticed and pointed out numerous alterations,
especially in the line of additions, which have crept in the Hebrew text of the prophecy of Habacuc, and render it at times very
obscure. Only a fair number of those alterations can be corrected by a close study of the context; by a careful comparison of the text
with the ancient versions, especially the Septuagint; by an application of the rules of Hebrew parallelism, etc. In the other places, the
primitive reading has disappeared and cannot be recovered, except conjecturally, by the means which Biblical criticism affords in
the present day.
Prophetical teaching
Most of the religious and moral truths that can be noticed in this short prophecy are not peculiar to it. They form part of the
common message which the prophets of old were charged to convey to God's chosen people. Like the other prophets, Habacuc is the
champion of ethical monotheism. For him, as for them, Yahweh alone is the living God (ii, 18-20); He is the Eternal and Holy One (i,
12), the Supreme Ruler of the Universe (i, 6, 17; ii, 5 sqq.; iii, 2-16), Whose word cannot fail to obtain its effect (ii, 3), and Whose
glory will be acknowledged by all nations (ii, 14). In his eyes, as in those of the other prophets, Israel is God's chosen people whose
unrighteousness He is bound to visit with a signal punishment (i, 2-4). The special people, whom it was Habacuc's own mission to
announce to his contemporaries as the instruments of Yahweh's judgment, were the Chaldeans, who will overthrow everything,
even Juda and Jerusalem, in their victorious march (i, 6 sqq.). This was indeed at the time an incredible prediction (i, 5), for was not
Juda God's kingdom and the Chaldean a world-power characterized by overweening pride and tyranny? Was not therefore Juda
the "just" to be saved, and the Chaldean really the "wicked" to be destroyed? The answer to this difficulty is found in the distich (ii,
4) which contains the central and distinctive teaching of the book. Its oracular form bespeaks a principle of wider import than the
actual circumstances in the midst of which it was revealed to the prophet, a general law, as we would say, of God's providence in the
government of the world: the wicked carries in himself the germs of his own destruction; the believer, on the contrary, those of
eternal life. It is because of this, that Habacuc applies the oracle not only to the Chaldeans of his time who are threatening the
existence of God's kingdom on earth, but also to all the nations opposed to that kingdom who will likewise be reduced to naught (ii,
5-13), and solemnly declares that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea"
(ii, 15). It is because of this truly Messianic import that the second part of Habacuc's oracle (ii, 4b) is repeatedly treated in the New
Testament writings (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38) as being verified in the inner condition of the believers of the
New Law.
Sources
COMMENTARIES: CATHOLIC:--SHEGG (2nd ed., Ratisbon, 1862); RHEINKE (Brixen, 1870); TROCHON (Paris, 1883); KNABENBAUER (Paris, 1886); NON-CATHOLIC:--
DELITZSCH (Leipzig, 1843); VON ORELLI (Eng. tr. Edinburgh, 1893); KLEINERT (Leipzig, 1893); WELLHAUSEN (3rd ed., Berlin, 1898); DAVIDSON (Cambridge, 1899); MARTI
(Freiburg im Br., 1904); NOWACK (2nd ed., Gttingen, 1904); DUHM (Tbingen, 1906); VAN HOONACKER (Paris, 1908).
About this page
APA citation. Gigot, F. (1910). Habacuc (Habakkuk). In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved May 23, 2014 from New Advent:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07097a.htm
MLA citation. Gigot, Francis. "Habacuc (Habakkuk)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 23 May 2014
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07097a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas J. Bress.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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