In Emergence Viola takes his inspiration from a detached fresco depicting Christ the Man of Sorrows painted by Masolino da Panicale for the church of San Giovanni Battista in Empoli, near Florence, and now in the Museo della Collegiata di Sant’Andrea. A reproduction of the painting appears in a photograph of Bill Viola’s studio in Long Beach, together with other works by Fra Angelico, Pontormo, Michelangelo and Hieronymus Bosch in which he has sough inspiration.