HR Giger: ‘The Spell III’ (1976) by HR Giger as explored by Aaron Openshaw

  

 

 

leading from

HR Giger's The Spell III (work 320) (1976) 

 

Giger's The Spell III (work 320) (1976)

 

a) Is H.R. Giger’s painting ‘The Spell III’ (1976), one of four paintings that compose the ‘The Spell Temple’ environment, symbolic of a scapegoat cleansing ritual? The word ‘Temple’ comes from the Latin word templum, a consecrated piece of ground or a building for the worship of God.
 

b) The scapegoat in the Jewish Day of Atonement ritual described in the Torah (Liviticus 16:8-10), is the goat ritually burdened with the sins of the Jewish people. The scapegoat was sent into a desolate wilderness for the demon Azazel, never to return, while a separate goat was slain as a blood sacrifice to god. Atoning for the sins of the people brought reconciliation between the people and god. Atonement in Christian theology is humans’ reconciliation with God through the sacrificial death of Christ.

c) In the foreground at the centre of the painting’s composition is a goat like head (note the two horns), similar in appearance to the Baphomet in Giger’s ‘The Spell IV’ (1977) painting, with a demonic face and blade between its teeth floating above a tree trunk chopping block. Is this the face of the demon Azazel? Azazel is associated with the scapegoat rite, who introduced humans to forbidden knowledge and taught them how to make swords and daggers.

d) The most prominent part of the composition is the empty coat hanging in the foreground of a temple space. In the Torah (Old Testament) Jacob gave his favourite son Joseph a coat (of many colours or with long sleeves depending on translation). His half brothers were jealous of Joseph and sold their brother into slavery. They then sacrificed a (scape)goat to cleanse their sins, dipped Jospeh’s coat into its blood and told their father that Joseph had been torn apart by wild beasts so he believed he was dead.

Further reading:  https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Scapegoat

(Originally posted by Aaron Openshaw at Giger Fans on Facebook, September 10th 2022)

‘The Coat of Many Colours’ (1866) painting by Ford Madox Brown.