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Washington Allston, Secret Societies, and the Alchemy of Anglo-American Painting (Cambridge Studies in American Visual Culture)

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One of the most fecund, yet challenging areas of study in the orbit of Freemasonry is the visual arts. This is only partly because Masonic ritual is closely tied to visual symbol. There is even a deeper layer related to the tendency of Freemasonry to reveal its symbolic content slowly, so slowly in fact that it might take a few centuries to uncover. For aesthetic analysis the reasons for this are not as important as the evident, numinous force behind its simple lessons. The wonderful thing about this magnificent study is that the author has a strong scholarly and intuitive sense about these very matters. Thus Bjelajac was able to limn the contours of a very difficult to discern realm. His work is clearly very important in two distinct areas. On the one hand, one gains insight into the gorgeous works of Allston by the special analysis provided. But on the other, the very analysis itself functions as a sort of proof that recondite artistic valences are themselves evidence of the mutually reinforcing values of Freemasonry on the wider cultural climate. But, perhaps even better, the inverse indicates something truly marvelous about Bjelajac's discoveries. To wit, that such a brilliant painter as Washington Allston so evocatively employed the best of Masonic intents, makes clear the very ennobling destiny of the ideals of the Freemasonry in the Nineteenth Century when, to say the least, Masonry was not always appreciated as it should have been. Amongst its other virtues, this book is result of of close study of Masonic research materials, with which the author demonstrates great expertise, in an environment that has flummoxed many others. It is a tour de force.