The Alabaster Jar

pencil

Gordon Napier, May 2007

...There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious...

Mark 14:3

This drawing was intended to express inward reflection on morality, reality, religious mysteries and higher things. The woman holding the jar of ointment looks away from a skull signifying the world where death is present, into the light of a lamp above a scroll. The scroll may stand for prophecies in the fulfillment of which she may play a part. She looks at the lamp but it is not a case of suddenly seeing the light. Instead a gradual, contemplative process is in action, an inner quest for illumination and transcendence.