Joan of Arc is arguably the most famous and celebrated woman in West European history. She led the French army to victory over the English during the Hundred Years’ War. Her world was one of conflict, tragedy and turmoil. Known as Saint Joan of Arc and the Maid of Orleans, the young maiden reaches a level of legendary status today that truly cannot be depicted in a single piece of art. “Joan of Arc, the immortal Spirit” is a portrait that embodies the divine visions and the holy voices in form of chaotic colors of darkness, heaven, and blood descending upon her short life. Joan’s holy calling and relentless determination merge her with the cross. The painting fragments Joan as a soldier of a physical being with flesh and blood; the collective of self-confident, innocence, emotion, and beauty; and the abstraction of a saint, a spiritual being, and a higher power. With constant and palpable company of divinity, she achieved extraordinary things in form feminine strength and authority that was lacking in medieval women. She took a moral path of ignoring her social rank and her gender that was ahead of her time. Today, she serves as potent paragon of the human subject at its most truthful and radical embodiment, a visible manifestations of our aspirations as well as our limitations, and as the center of endless stories that transcend her spirit to immortality.
