Behalt Murals

Ohio History

Behalt Scenes

Here are a few close-ups from just a small area of the mural. The number of figures and scenes packed into the painting was simply amazing! The pictorial story began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1525 where the Anabaptist movement originated, in the context the Roman Catholic Church and the developing Reformation. Important leaders and events in Anabaptist history were then depicted, leading to the emergence of the Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterites. Can you pick out all three in the scene pictured above?

Era of Conflict

The pictures simply flowed into each other as though geometric shapes of color had been laid overlapping across the scenes. In fact, the colors actually symbolized different eras of history--red during times of persecution, blue to show peace, yellow for excitement. We learned that the artist made initial charcoal sketches of the scenes before using brilliant oil paints on these enormous canvases. More on the artist in my next post!