Isaiah & the Seraph (ver. 5)
One of my great pleasures as a visual artist is exploring different themes. Such is the case with Isaiah & the Seraph. My newest version, above, is my fifth painting of this story from the Book of Isaiah. Thirty years ago, it was the very first passage from the Bible that I illustrated. Hundreds of commissions followed as I worked for two Christian publishers for over a decade – but no story captured my imagination like this one.
In the four previous versions (below), I experimented with several compositions, showing the prophet and the mythic six-winged creature at different angles – full-front, profile, stacked, and side-by-side. I also used different color palettes and painting techniques. Here’s version 1, from the mid-90s:
Version 2, with its restricted colors, became a sketch for version 5:
Version 3 was painted on a collage of textured rice papers mounted on canvas. In a somewhat Cubist manner, this breaks up the imagery into geometric shapes – which I then “knit” back together with painted gradients. This one shows the two figures side by side:
Version 4 focuses on Isaiah as a bridge, or emissary, between heaven and earth, with the four points of the diamond suggesting a vertical and horizontal axis:
In version 5 (top image above), the prophet is a sort of pillar between earth and heaven, between the land of Israel and the realm of the divine. With the folds of his garment merging with the hills around him, Isaiah is of the land and himself a flawed incarnate being – yet he reaches to transcend human nature and connect to the Eternal, imploring the people to follow the ways of their God.
Isaiah lived in a time of great upheaval, in which the commandments and laws of the Torah were imperiled by corruption, thereby endangering the holy city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people as a whole. As an educated man and a prophet, Isaiah spoke truth to power, and like a lightning rod, anchored divine law to earthly life and practice. This is why every version I’ve painted shows him in and of the land, or composed of earth and clay (as in version 1).
This idea of a human interlocutor between heaven and earth is most intriguing to me. As the story goes, Isaiah hears the call to fill this role, but finds himself unfit in the realm of language. “Woe is me,” he cries, “for I am lost, a man of unclean lips, and amidst a people of unclean lips I dwell!” – whereupon the six-winged angel flies from heaven with a hot coal from the fiery altar of the Eternal. One touch of this coal to the prophet’s lips is enough to instantly purify his language, releasing him to answer God’s call with the famous phrase, Hineni – Here I am.
Truly, there are endless ways to illustrate this story. The six wings of the seraph can be configured in a number of ways, evident in different renderings over the centuries. So can the interaction with the Isaiah, and Isaiah’s relationship with Jerusalem. In this latest version, I simplified the city more than ever, reducing it to geometric shapes. I have not wanted to depict the divine altar – only the hot coal that touches Isaiah’s lips.
All these variables make the challenge of illustrating this passage fertile ground for creative exploration. None of these versions are perfect in my mind, but trial and error is an important part of the creative process. Success is often built on failure.
Is the image now resolved once and for all? Unlikely. Some themes can never be exhausted. There is still the crucial importance on the sacredness of language to explore – a common theme in ancient Jewish spiritual literature. How shall I visually articulate reverence for words?
I shall have to think about that.
Isaiah & the Seraph is for sale – and it’s also the image for February 2026 in my calendar, The Jewish Eye 5786/2026 Calendar of Art – now available in my webstore, on Etsy, and on Amazon. You can view all the images here.
Rosh Hashanah is less than a month away. Please tell your friends about the calendar! It makes a wonderful gift for the New Year.
A good week to all!
D. Yael Bernhard
https://dyaelbernhard.com
Have you seen my other Substack, The Art of Health? In addition to being a visual artist, I’m also a certified integrative health & nutrition coach with a lifelong passion for natural food cooking and herbal medicine. Now in its second year, this illustrated newsletter explores cutting-edge concepts of nutrition. I strive to make relevant information clear and accessible, and to anchor essential health concepts in unique images. Check it out, and if you like it, please subscribe and help spread the word. Your support keeps my work going!