Indeed, as early as Origen
in the third century it was being pointed out that we must not think of the Ascension as a movement
in space; and
in fact Luke seems to have translated into mythical form, i.e. a
pictorial narrative, the universal
belief of the early Church that Jesus has ascended to the throne of God, not
in a physical manner but
in the sense that he has been exalted to Lordship over all the world.
His
belief that the tensions between form and color were themselves evocative of
pictorial space is revealed
in these works, from 1942 and 1945, and reflected
in that of his many students.