This painting is one which is deeply symbolic, with biblical concepts and themes being explored within the composition, which includes the background of the Holyland in Jerusalem, a place that the artist visited and was inspired by.
It has been suggested in research that I have gathered so far, that the title and featured 'Scapegoat' is not in fact a type of goat at all, a scapegoat is normally used as more of a figurative personification of something that is being blamed for someone else's wrongdoings. This further supports the idea that the painting is featuring a day of the 'Festival of Atonement', a ritual day for Christians stated in Leviticus 16, where they sacrificed a blooded mammal to the Holyland. Within the ceremony, the high priest would confess the sins of Israel upon touching of the head of the 'scapegoat' with the slaughtering of the goat, it was believed that their sins were taken with the goat into the wilderness and cleansed.
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