In the Architectural Review in 1921, the architect Ernest Newton (1856–1922) noted how ‘old fashions in art often recur, for a considerable time Scriptural subjects were taboo. Now they have come into favour again.’ 

In the aftermath of the war, many artists created images of remembrance and reconciliation in which religious iconography played a central role,supporting spiritual unity before the fragmented age of the modern.  Spencer’s designation of a contemporary, personalised religious allegory updated for the modern age, had a profound influence on other artists’ approach to the genre, including Winifred Knights, John Luke, Thomas Monnington, Glyn Jones and Thomas Nash. Spencer, who was at the Slade with Nash described Nash as ‘walking around with the Bible in one hand

and my ideas in the other’