The Crucifixion Painting

January 12, 2019/in Famous Paintings of Jesus Christ/by warcher

Jesus on the cross – famous paintings

Questions for Bible study groups

Which of the paintings below affects you the most? Why?
Do different paintings of the Crucifixion offer different messages to the viewer?
If you had to choose one of these paintings for your church, which would you choose? Why?
Towards the bottom of the page you’ll see a section on Hidden Meanings in paintings of the Crucifixion. Skim through these and note any hidden meanings you hadn’t noticed before. What are they?

In brief: The crucifixion of Jesus was a central event in the gospels. Some painters glossed over the horrifying details, presenting a glorified Christ; others showed the agony of crucifixion. They showed Jesus alone in his final moments or surrounded by anguished disciples. See Hidden Meanings for more on the way that artists depicted crucifixion.

Crucifixion, Matthias Grunewald

Crucifixion, Nicolai Ge

Preparatory sketch for Christ in ‘Calvary’

Crucifixion, Giotto

Crucifixion, Francis Bacon, 1933

Study for a figure at the base of a Crucifixion, Francis Bacon

The figure at the foot of the cross is horrific: half-human, half-beast. Its screaming mouth protests against man’s inhumanity to man. Some critics say that Bacon’s inspiration for this image came from the wounded nurse in Eisenstein’s 1925 film Battleship Potemkin – see the movie clip of this scene. The gaping mouth breathing black air may also reflect Bacon’s severe asthma,
which eventually killed him in 1992.

Crucifixion, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Altarpiece of the Sacraments

Christ of St John of the Cross, Salvador Dali

Hidden meanings in Crucifixion paintings

In Roman times crucifixion was a widely used form of capital punishment, reserved for baser criminals and slaves. It was probably carried out differently from the way it is presented in art. At the site of the execution the upright post was already set into the ground; it could be used many times.
The condemned man was led to the place of execution carrying only the horizontal piece to which his hands were already tied to prevent resistance. On arrival his hands (or wrists) were nailed to the ends of the cross-bar which was then lifted on to the upright. It either rested across the top, to form a ‘T’ or was set somewhat lower down, forming the familiar crux immissa (intersecting). In either case the pieces were secured by some form of mortise and tenon. Finally the feet were nailed to the upright.
The early Church avoided images of the Crucifixion, because they showed that Jesus had died as a criminal.
At the time when Christianity was forbidden by the Romans, the crucifixion was represented symbolically by the lamb of Christ juxtaposed with a cross. Even after the age of Constantine the Great, when Christians were allowed to practise their religion without interference, the cross itself was still represented without the figure of Christ.
Later paintings show Jesus on the cross, but no-one else nearby; they were aids to devotion, a focus for prayer, not pictures of the scene.
Other paintings tell the story of the Crucifixion; they are crowded with people, as in the work of Italian Renaissance artists. There were figures from the gospels who became a permanent feature of the crucifixion: the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist, the centurion and the sponge-bearer, the two thieves, the soldiers casting lots.
For many centuries Christ was shown alive and open-eyed, a triumphant Saviour wearing a royal crown. In the 11th century however there appeared a new type, the emaciated figure with its head fallen on one shoulder and wearing a crown of thorns.
In art up to the 13th century the usual number of nails was four (including one for each foot), but after this it was usually three, (one foot nailed over the other).
In antiquity an inscription stating the nature of the condemned man’s offence was hung round his neck as he was led to execution, and was afterwards fixed to the head of the cross. John (19:19-20) tells how Pilate ‘wrote an inscription to be fastened to the cross; it read, “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews” . . . in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.’ In Renaissance art it is usually given in Latin only, ‘Iesus Nazarenes Rex Iudaeorum’, abbreviated to `INRI’.
The medieval Church debated whether Christ was naked on the cross; in ancient Rome this was standard practice. Usually he is shown with a thin band of cloth extending round the waist and under the crotch. The loincloth was an invention of artists in the early Middle Ages.
The two thieves were crucified with Christ, one on each side. Luke adds that one rebuked the other saying that their punishment was deserved whereas Christ was innocent, and was told by the Saviour, ‘Today you shall be with me in Paradise.’ Art distinguished between the penitent and impenitent thief. The good is on Christ’s right (the ‘good’ side); his expression is peaceful where the other’s is anguished. The names by which they are generally known, Dismas and Gestas (good and bad), are taken from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.
The soldiers who crucified Christ divided his clothes into four parts, one for each soldier. Of the seamless tunic, woven in one piece, they said, ‘We must not tear this; let us toss for it.’ They are either at the foot of the cross or in a corner of the picture. One is in the act of throwing dice while the others look on.
The Virgin and St John stand by the cross. This scene was originally intended to express the scene from John’s gospel (19:26-27) in which Christ, while he still lived, entrusted the Virgin to the care of the apostle John. The Virgin stands on the right of Christ, St John on the left. Their heads are inclined. She may have raised her left hand to her cheek, supporting the elbow with the other hand, a traditional gesture of sorrow dating back to Hellenistic times.
The Virgin swoons into the arms of the holy women. There is no mention of this in the gospels – it is a creation of later medieval preachers and writers. They assumed that she was overcome with anguish, and suggested she swooned three times: on the Road to Calvary, at the crucifixion and after the descent from the cross.
In early paintings Mary Magdalene wears a red cloak. Later she appears richly attired and with her usual copious hair, kneeling at the foot of the cross or embracing it in passionate grief. She may kiss the bleeding feet or wipe them with her hair.

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Jesus Christ

Modern images of Jesus and Mary

Annunciation

Birth of Jesus

Magdalene Painting

January 4, 2019/in Famous Paintings of Jesus Christ/by warcher

Mary Magdalene, first Resurrection witness

Questions for Bible study groups

Scroll down the paintings on this page. They show various events in the life of Mary Magdalene.
Which painting appeals to you most? Can you say why you like this particular painting?
Which event in Mary’s life was, in your opinion, the most significant?
If you could meet her, what questions would you ask?

In brief: Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, and probably his financial backer. It is extremely unlikely, well-nigh impossible, that she was a reformed prostitute, but medieval painters loved to show her as such. She was the first witness to the Resurrection, and is called ‘Apostle to the Apostles’, since the risen Christ told her to ‘go and tell’, apostellein in Greek.

Giotto, Noli Me Tangere (‘Do not touch me’ )

Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. She has at first mistaken him for a gardener, but when she realizes her mistake she reaches toward Jesus. Do not touch me, he says, for I am not yet ascended to my father.

She is portrayed in two distinct ways: before her conversion she is richly attired, jewelled and gloved, a figure of Profane Love; as a penitent, she wears a simple cloak or is often naked, covered only by her long hair (a very popular theme during the Victorian period). She usually has a crucifix and a skull, and sometimes a whip and a crown of thorns. She reads or meditates or, in Baroque paintings, raises her tear-filled eyes towards a vision of angels in heaven.

An angel on the left sits rather casually on the side of the tomb, but the two above Jesus are closer to disembodied spirits – notice that though they have heads and arms, their legs are simply not there. Angels are not corporeal beings, Giotto reminds us. This heightens the sense that Jesus is inhabiting two worlds. Giotto emphasises the other-worldliness by giving Jesus a human appearance but encasing him in ethereal light and garments.

Mary, however, is decidedly not of another world. Her red, semi-transparent silk garment proclaims her as very much alive.

Hidden Meanings in paintings of Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was always an important figure in the gospel, but she became even more so after the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church encouraged devotion to the Sacraments, particularly Penance. Mary was seen as the ideal penitent because she supposedly anointed the feet of Jesus. But the woman who did this, whoever she was, was unnamed in the gospel.
In fact there is no real link between the woman who anointed Jesus, and the woman called Mary Magdalene who was exorcised of seven ‘demons’ – in other words, she was cured of a severe illness.
Never mind the facts, go with the myth. Mary Magdalene is often shown with a jar of ointment. Her hair is untied, long and flowing, sometimes covering her whole body.

‘Mary Magdalene Approaching the Tomb’, Gian Girolamo Savoldo, 1535-40

Mary and the other women (not shown by the painter) approach the tomb on Easter Sunday morning at dawn. They have brought spices and perfumed ointment to anoint the body of Jesus, but it is gone. Mary’s grief and confusion overcome her, and she weeps. Then she hears a sound behind her, and turns to look. What is behind her? It is very early in the morning, and at the left of the picture dawn is breaking over the horizon. But a much stronger light is coming from behind Mary’s left shoulder, making her cloak shimmer Savoldo suggests the light behind her is stronger than even the light of the sun – and of course the viewer knows that this light is Jesus, resurrected. Bible reference: John 20:11-16

‘The First Meeting of Christ and Mary Magdalene’, Henryk Siemiradzki,1873

Mary Magdalene’s sumptuous clothing and jewellery contrast sharply with the simplicity and dignity of Jesus. His gaze is direct, while she tries to hide herself in the shade. Behind him stand his disciples, straining to see how he will react. Behind her, on the other hand, are a band of reprobates who jeer at this provincial preacher. On the left of the picture, the simple countryside; on the right, ornate Roman architecture. This is a picture of contrasts, essentially a dramatic tableau showing a pivotal moment in Mary’s life. Bible reference: Luke 8:1-3

‘The Repenting Magdalene’, Georges de La Tour, late 1630’s

Mary surveys the mirror, symbol of her former vanity and preoccupation with worldly things. It casts a large shadow. Her beauty remains, but she has clearly become aware of the fact that there is more to life than earthly pleasure. Now, in the stillness of night, she reflects on past events, and on her own transformation through the encounter she has had with Jesus.

The skull in Mary’s lap reminds here that Death is inevitable for all creatures, and will come to her as well. It suggests that she should think about the hereafter as well as the present.
George de la Tour excelled in the use of light and shadow, and the meditative mood that night brings to all creatures.

‘The Penitent Magdalene’, Caravaggio, 1597

Caravaggio has managed to capture the image of a woman who has come to the end of the road, too tired to look into her future. This is the moment, he suggests, when she is ready to respond to Jesus’ message of redemption. Mary Magdalene is sumptuously dressed, but the discarded jewellery and her slumped figure tell the viewer that she has reached a turning point in her life. Caravaggio portrays her as a rich courtesan, not a common prostitute. In fact, the real Mary Magdalene was neither. She was not the sinner described in Luke 7:36-50, and when Luke does describe an actual prostitute in 15:30, he uses a different word, not ‘sinner’.

‘Mary Magdalene’, detail of head only, Donatello, 1455

In popular legend, Mary Magdalene was portrayed as a repentant sinner who retired to a cave in the desert where she became a penitent hermit. She practised every sort of physical penance and privation, to atone for the sins she supposedly had committed before she was cured by Jesus. There is no biblical evidence for this depiction of Mary Magdalene. It derives from popular legend and medieval tradition only.

Donatello’s Mary has a thin, exhausted face and matted, filthy hair. Her emaciated body is clad in ragged animal skins. She is barefoot and bare armed. Her repentance is obviously sincere, but her self-abasement is not appealing. The sculpture is currently held in the Duomo Museum, Florence. It had become blackened by time, but after the terrible flood in 1966 it was cleaned and restored to its present appearance.

‘Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon the Pharisee’, Jean Beraud, 1891

The story of the woman with the alabaster jar is transported into 19th century France. This interesting and technically accomplished painting pulls the event in Luke 7:36-50 into the modern world. Only the figure of Jesus is timeless. All the others, including the startled maid at far right, are in modern dress. The painting was controversial when it first appeared, because people rightly suspected that Beraud was trying to make them uncomfortable by confronting them with their own failings, their own hypocrisy. Many of the well-heeled men in the painting would have had mistresses. Now they were confronted with reality, with raw human suffering, and they did not particularly like it. Bible reference: Luke 7:36-50

‘The Magdalene Reading’, Ambrosius Benson, 1525

Mary, now repentant and reformed, sits quietly reading. Her life of sin is behind her.

As with many other painting of Mary Magdalene, this one contains a representation of an alabaster vase, suggesting that she is the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume made from nard. The red of her dress and her pouting lips encourage the viewer to think of her as no better than she should be…. must have been popular, because Benson painted a v

‘The Repentant Magdalene’, Antonio Canova, 1809

Mary alone in the desert, repenting her past sins. In the legends that grew up after her death, Mary is supposed to have repented after meeting Christ; she then spent many years in the desert, where she lamented her past sins. In keeping with this tradition, Canova shows her dressed in the clothing of a hermit. The skull beside her is a reminder of death, which must come to all. The figure of Mary once held a cross, symbol of the Crucifixion. She is clearly grief-stricken and helpless. There is no evidence for any of this in the New Testament.

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