How Beauty Points to God: Lessons from The Monarch of the Glen

Fr Patrick van der Vorst of ‪@christianart‬ joins legendary composer Sir James MacMillan in front of one of Scotland’s most iconic paintings, The Monarch of The Glen by Edwin Landseer, to explore the story behind this masterpiece.

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Fr Patrick van der Vorst visits the Scottish National Gallery to see one of the most famous images of the Victorian era—Sir Edwin Landseer’s The Monarch of the Glen. He is joined by world-renowned Scottish composer and conductor Sir James MacMillan to explore the story behind this masterpiece and how it draws the viewer into the presence of the divine.
Painted in 1851, The Monarch of the Glen has become one of Scotland’s most beloved and recognisable artworks, appearing in advertising campaigns, on shortbread tins, and whisky bottle labels. Yet, while the painting remains a cultural icon, its deeper story is less well known.
Fr Patrick shares with James the story of the artist behind the work, Sir Edwin Landseer, a celebrated Victorian painter of animals who sought solace in the Scottish Highlands during a period of personal crisis. Amid the vast landscape, Landseer found inspiration, sketching the region’s wildlife and rugged terrain—studies that would later shape his most famous painting.
Subtle details in The Monarch of the Glen reveal its origins as a studio creation. The stag’s exquisitely detailed fur appears almost like fine fabric, and its jaw and lips bear an uncanny resemblance to human anatomy rather than that of a true Highland stag. But it is the Monarch’s gaze that captivates most—a commanding yet distant stare that asserts the creature’s majesty over the land.
Fr Patrick draws a parallel between the stag’s proud, searching expression and Landseer’s own artistic and personal journey. He suggests that within the painting lingers the question: What comes next?—a question not only for the artist but for anyone drawn into the beauty and mystery of the work.
Beauty and the Romantic period (1800-1860)
Between 1800 and the 1860s, artists like Edwin Landseer and his contemporaries sought inspiration from the natural world, responding to the rapid changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution. They sought to escape the mechanical advancements of the era by turning to nature. Through their art, they invited viewers to look beyond the material world, with its burgeoning industries and machinery, to find meaning in beauty, emotion, and faith.
Against the backdrop of The Monarch of the Glen, Fr. Patrick and Sir James MacMillan discuss the spiritual dimension behind the work, drawing on beauty as a means of bringing people into an encounter with the divine. James, who, like Landseer, has explored the Scottish Highlands and is familiar with similar landscapes depicted in the gallery’s paintings, shares his sense of the numinous when the elements reveal themselves. Drawing parallels between goodness, truth, and beauty, he expresses a desire to hear more sermons on the subject of beauty—one he jokes is often the lesser among its complementary facets in the spiritual life.
Fr. Patrick introduces the teachings of the 20th-century Swiss theologian and Catholic priest Hans Urs von Balthasar. Balthasar believed that beauty is one of the primary ways through which a person can encounter God. In his seminal work, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, he argued that through Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, God reveals Himself. For Balthasar, great art—whether a landscape painting or more overtly Christian art—acts as a window to the divine, reflecting God’s glory and drawing us deeper into the mystery of the Creator.
At the heart of Balthasar’s theology is the concept that “Christ’s drama of salvation is not only true but also beautiful.” It is the belief that Christ is the ultimate beauty. Therefore, beauty—whether in painting, poetry, or music—offers a timeless connection to the divine.