Uniquely, Turner has here adapted a of the Alps to include a Biblical subject. It illustrates John 5.2-4: 'Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered; waiting for the movement of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.'
'Troubling' in this usage means to stir up the waters to make them thick or muddy. Turner has moved the action from Jerusalem to the Alps. A queue of sick people waits by the pool.
Gallery label, August 2004
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