The Course of Empire: Why Thomas Cole is my Favorite Artist

Consummation of Empire

“The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal," 

- Camille Paglia

Beauty is glory. True beauty is meant to be a decoration for that which is true and good. In a fallen world, beauty can be deceptive and empty, sinfully misplaced. The beauty of the Roman Empire, the Greek city states, the Acropolis and the temples of the gods are undeniable– but true beauty will not belong forever to those who do not honor its Source.

In Chilton’s Paradise Restored he talks of Beauty as God’s blessing to man. The precious metals of gold, onyx, and bdellium, the Garden of Eden, Solomon’s temple, the garments of the High Priest- beauty is a sign of the Curse of the Fall being reversed- of God’s truth and blessings ruling the earth again.

In such an era of philosophy and education in Athens during the golden era, this beauty was rightfully placed; God’s truths of the order of the world being revealed through mathematics and astronomy, physics and logic, art, literature, architecture- the Age of Reason, some of the greatest minds, ideas & findings that completely influenced the world for years after, even today’s culture- but there was no honor being brought to God, and what is the beauty of Creation without its Creator? 

When the Empire fell, its beauty was destroyed- I cannot help but think that even in the justice being done, even in God’s plan to work everything out for the better, that there is still some tragedy in every good thing that is ever lost in the righteous deliverance, and that while one day everything will be accounted for, we have to sit in the loss and rubble of the good things that were lost in the destruction of sin. Because that is what sin does- it taints everything around it, and brings disdain upon even something as good as Beauty, because of the lies that it was used to adorn. 

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  -Ecclesiastes 3:11 

Thomas Cole’s Series

Last week I came across a painting I’d always loved and pinned it many times on Pinterest, The Consummation of the Empire, and looked up the artist and to see if they’d painted anything else I’d like, only to find that the artist was responsible for literally all my top favorite pictures. I was thrilled to find that the painting was a part of a 5 part series called The Course of Empire, and that every painting in it I’d already loved, and that they were all fantastic. 

These paintings, while clearly very Roman & Greek inspired, are not of any real empire but rather a fictional one created by Cole, and they create a really clear view of the beauty of an empire and the tragedy of its fall and loss. 

The series is in this order:

1. The Savage State

2. The Arcadian or Pastoral State

3. The Consummation of Empire

4. Destruction

5. Desolation

The Savage State

The Savage State: the very beginnings of Cole’s created civilization. America had its wild, barbaric foundings of the Wild West, and here this new nation is being forged and created. A new dawn has begun. Dominion is messy and brutal, beautiful and daring. There is history to be made. 

The Arcadian or Pastoral State

The Pastoral State: Whatever barbaric wars that are always messily fought at the beginnings of societies are over, and peace, abundance and safety allow for the people to explore art and culture. An old man can be seen drawing out maybe a geometrical problem and a boy is drawing; a sacrifice burns in the foreground’s temple. The beginnings of the empire. 

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings."

— Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)

Mankind’s true state is to take dominion of the world and discover the hidden orders of creation. The hidden orders of truths such as astronomy and mathematics, reason and law, the hidden orders of goodness, morality, the laws written on our souls, the hidden orders aesthetics, what makes something beautiful? What brings glory to the truths of the world? Here in this painting the world is beginning, and its inhabitants are discovering the laws of the world that will form their culture. 

The Consummation of Empire

And finally, society is created. And while all the paintings are absolutely beautiful, I think Consummation is the most alive- an image of society at its highest. The peak of the story of this series; the climax. 

And so many things have to go right in a culture to achieve such glory. The politics and economy have reached such a place of great riches to have this kind of beauty, the people generally similarly minded, trade, commerce, and agreement on aesthetic decisions, an understanding of architecture and the world’s order of what makes something beautiful (which the Greeks were obsessed with understanding this- The Golden Ratio, studies on symmetry) and they believed that beauty was an outward expression of an underlying order in the universe.

Beauty is Truth expressed. Goodness embodied.

What a tragedy it is how it can operate in a fallen world. 

While reading up on these paintings, I was shocked to see some say that The Pastoral State is the ideal state of humanity, and that once we make it to the state of the empire we become a greedy, spoiled, lustful society. What a pessimistic way to view society. And what an attack on the dominion that God commands. 

The thing that makes this initial state so beautiful is that it is the beginning of something. A beginning is not meant to ever be eternal; the people in the Pastoral State are looking towards a future, they are dreaming of it. God created the world, and He did not leave it empty. He filled it and saw that it was good. He commands his creations to add to it, to take dominion of it.

While there is beauty in the slate being fresh and clean, and in a fallen world the act of creating in it is bound to include failure and sin, we should not avoid drawing on it to avoid sin. Many people confuse innocence with goodness, but never doing anything doesn’t make you good. You can’t lock yourself away to avoid sin– because sin is not meant to be avoided, it’s meant to be fought. Never taking dominion and never messing up is the exact opposite of how God created the world to function. Through the action of dominion we learn our shortcomings, and must learn to leave them behind to pursue a society of truth and goodness.

And while Consummation captures the peak of this glory, Destruction captures the epitome of this tragedy. 

Destruction

Nothing gold can stay. In a finite world, nations collapse and empires fall. Human sin- hatred, envy, lust, selfish gain- take over and destroy the beauty that truth created. This painting beautifully captures the tragedy of this loss. 

Desolation

And finally- Desolation. While this painting shows the sadness of the loss, there is still hope of a future. This series shows the cycles of empires- a new society will spring up, from the ashes the savage state will begin again, and the fight for the pastoral state shall begin, that we may create a worthy empire.

May we always possess beauty in our society and strive to be a culture that is deserving of it. 

And that is why Consummation is my favorite of all- the heaven-like beauty is the most true representation of what the ideal society is– it is not a dazzling empire with great sin and darkness hiding behind the veils of glamour; it is true to its core, it is beautiful in every way; it is lovely for all eternity. 

In Cole’s paintings I see the beauty of the world and the tragedy and glory of time, and how God works through the ages. So for that he is my favorite artist. 

Thanks for reading! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!