On a dreary Tuesday, a portrait gallery in London was open to the public towards the later morning. The exhibit inside the gallery encompassed a great number of diverse subjects and topics of imagery. Portraits, painted by a variety of different artists, ranged from picturesque visuals of fields, trees, and the ocean to warmly depicted paintings of assorted objects such as furniture, fruit, and books. Some portraits were exhaustive with detail while others were flushed with allegory or reserved with simplistic designs. All types of artforms were represented on the greenish-blue walls of the gallery museum as patrons wandered the halls and admired the various works.

           One piece of art in particular was an oil painting and portrait of a Jewish Italian and a survivor of the Axis regime during World War II, Lucas Moretti. Painted by American artist Fred Whitney, the portrait depicted a desk with a large stack of letters atop it and a rack of books in the background, reminiscent of Moretti’s own career as a librarian. Moretti himself had a long, stoic face with eyes hollowed from torture and a meek smile. The librarian leaned against the desk with his right hand while hugging a book against his torso with his left hand. As a means to celebrate Moretti’s life, the portrait was painted to bring awareness to scars left by the Axis Powers in the aftermath of their persecutions against those who followed the Jewish faith. Next to the painting hung a plaque, with a quote from Moretti’s autobiography etched onto its front that read:

“Patriotism, on the whole, is a healthy exclamation of one’s spirit and beliefs. However, when that Patriotism crosses the threshold to Nationalism, that same spirit and belief become predominantly blinding to one’s self. Nationalism advocates for pridefulness, self-importance, and sovereign chivalry at the expense of others; citizens of one’s own country become victims of prejudice and are seen as a lesser specimen, they become threats to the nationalists’ ideology and their prosperity, and become enemies of the state. The shift from Patriotism to Nationalism does not happen suddenly, rather, it occurs gradually. One’s own idea of self-identification becomes skewed or distorted away from the bedrock of their country’s principles and ultimately becomes plagued with animosity and distrust toward the nature of all things alien or differentiated.”

 Photo by Krzysztof Hepner on Unsplash