The painting contrasts dramatically in style with the contemporary religious works of Millais's former companion, William Holman Hunt, such as " The Shadow of Death ", on which Hunt was working at the same time; however, it has been suggested that both pictures may refer to typological prefigurations of the crucifixion in scenes in which raised, outstretched arms signify both physical suffering and triumph.
32.
Christian writers such as Origen ( 184 / 185 253 / 254 ) took up the allegorized interpretations and began to read the Old Testament as a series of prefigurations of the New Testament, in a time when rhetorical training was common, when the classics of mythology were still standard teaching texts, when the Greek and Roman pantheon of gods were still visible forms ( if not always fully recognized by the more learned populace ), and when the new religions such as Christianity adopted or rejected pagan elements by way of " allegoresis " ( the study and interpretation of allegory ).
33.
Film critic Chuck Stephens, in his essay " Both Ends Burning " for the Criterion Collection release of " Fires on the Plain ", said the following about Ichikawa : " At once a consummate professional and commercially successful studio team player and an idiosyncratic artist whose bravest films-often displaying a thoroughly odd obsession ( to borrow the title of one of his most brilliantly sardonic black comedies ) with fusing the brightest and bleakest aspects of human nature-were passionately personal ( if not political or polemical ) prefigurations of the Japanese new wave, has always had a gift for crystallizing contradition ."
