(lust) The Seven Deadly Sins

Bernard Reder

(In 1945)..."after a serious illness left him partially paralyzed, Reder began to focus on drawings and woodcuts, frequently depicting biblical themes alongside more cryptic images that sprang from his own imagination. He carefully inked and printed his woodcuts himself, and although he printed standard editions, he often pulled only single impressions of his prints.

Reder’s experience as a sculptor is clearly manifest in this series of woodcuts. He treats the woodblock aggressively as a three-dimensional object, rather than simply a matrix for a two-tone image. By essentially sculpting the block to varying degrees of relief, often using improvised tools, he obtains printed textures and mid-tones not common to this medium. His choice of a biblical subject, a frequent theme throughout his oeuvre, affords him ample opportunity to demonstrate his profound knowledge of the human figure.

This woodcut Reder illustrates the one of the Seven Deadly Sins - Lust "The Bible speaks about lust in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love [and] peace...”

The Bible also mentions lust in the following verses: Job 31:1, Matthew 5:28, Philippians 4:8, James 1:14-15, 1 Peter 2:11 and 1 John 2:16.

Allegedly "Chastity or self-control cures lust by controlling passion and leveraging that energy for the good of others".