art in detail: the passion of the christ (part 1)

Art in Detail

The Passion of Christ

(part 1)

UNKNOWN MASTER, NetherlandishThe Entry into Jerusalem15th centuryOil on panel, 117 x 52 cmThe Hermitage, St. Petersburg

UNKNOWN MASTER, NetherlandishThe Entry into Jerusalem (detail)15th centuryOil on panel, 117 x 52 cmThe Hermitage, St. Petersburg

STROZZI, BernardoBanquet at the House of Simonc. 1630Oil on canvas, 272 x 740 cmGallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

STROZZI, BernardoBanquet at the House of Simon (detail)c. 1630Oil on canvas, 272 x 740 cmGallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

GIOTTO di BondoneNo. 28 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 12. Judas' Betrayal1304-06Fresco, 150 x 140 cmCappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua

GIOTTO di BondoneNo. 28 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 12. Judas' Betrayal (detail)1304-06Fresco, 150 x 140 cmCappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua

TINTORETTOChrist Washing the Feet of His Disciplesc. 1547Oil on canvas, 210 x 533 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

TINTORETTOChrist Washing the Feet of His Disciples (detail)c. 1547Oil on canvas, 210 x 533 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

LEONARDO da VinciThe Last Supper1498Mixed technique, 460 x 880 cmConvent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

LEONARDO da VinciThe Last Supper (detail)1498Mixed technique, 460 x 880 cmConvent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

BELLINI, GiovanniAgony in the Gardenc. 1465Tempera on wood, 81 x 127 cmNational Gallery, London

BELLINI, GiovanniAgony in the Garden (detail)c. 1465Tempera on wood, 81 x 127 cmNational Gallery, London

MANTEGNA, AndreaAgony in the Gardenc. 1459Tempera on wood, 63 x 80 cmNational Gallery, London

MANTEGNA, AndreaAgony in the Garden (detail)c. 1459Tempera on wood, 63 x 80 cmNational Gallery, London

CARAVAGGIOTaking of Christc. 1602Oil on canvas, 134 x 170 cmNational Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

CARAVAGGIOTaking of Christ (detail)c. 1602Oil on canvas, 134 x 170 cmNational Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Art in Detail: The Passion of Christ(part 1)

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CARAVAGGIOTaking of Christ

The attribution of the painting is doubtful. Another version of this subject is in the Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Odessa.

The main figures are pushed to the left, so that the right-hand half of the picture is left to the soldiers, whose suits of armor absorb what little light there is, and whose faces are the most part hidden.

At the right of the picture, an unhelmeted head emerges from the surrounding darkness. This is often regarded as the artist's self-portrait. Caravaggio has also concerned himself here with the act of seeing as one of a painter's task.

The three men on the right are there mainly to intensify the visual core of the painting, underscored by the lantern. On the left, the tactile aspect is not forgotten. Judas vigorously embraces his master, whilst a heavily mailed arm reaches above him towards Christ's throat.

Christ, however, crosses his hands, which he holds out well in front of him, whilst St John flees shrieking into the deep night. His red cloak is torn from his shoulder. As it flaps open it binds the faces of Christ and Judas together - a deliberate touch on the artist's part.

UNKNOWN MASTER, NetherlandishThe Entry into Jerusalem

This painting, which abounds in details of a medieval city, is one panel of a large altarpiece. It follows the late Gothic tradition and resembles a book miniature and 15th-century Netherlandish painting.

STROZZI, BernardoBanquet at the House of Simon

The story behind the painting is from the New Testament:

“…When Jesus was on his travels to preach, a Pharisee called Simon invited him to a meal.When Jesus arrived at the Pharisee’s house and took his place at table, suddenly a woman came in, who had a bad name in the town. She had heard he was dining with the Pharisee and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment. She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment.After this scene, Simon the Pharisee wondered whether Jesus was really the prophet everyone told he was, because surely Jesus would have seen that this woman had a bad name and would not have let her touch him. But Jesus retorted with a parable and he showed the difference of welcoming he had received from Simon as compared to the welcome of the woman. Simon had poured no water over Jesus’ feet and Simon had not anointed Jesus’ head.Jesus said: “For this reason I tell you, Simon, that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love”. Then he said to the woman: “Your sins are forgiven…..”

The artist has distributed the various characters around the painting, not randomly but with care so as to tell various parts of the story behind the painting. The banquet table is set diagonally in the wide niche. There are two focal points to the composition:

Christ defending Mary Magdalene and Simon leaning incredulously over the table. A dense, rich colour, vibrant with atmospheric luminosity renders the figures physically and spiritually alive. The close observation of detail has a post-Caravaggio realism in the brilliant depiction of the servant interrupting the scuffle between a dog and a cat, or of the page bearing a tray of fruit, silhouetted against the sky.

GIOTTO di BondoneNo. 28 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 12. Judas' Betrayal

This scene, very seldom depicted, is displayed on the triumphal arch wall. The scribes, who were whispering in the preceding scene, The Driving of the Traders from the Temple, persuade Judas to betray his master.

Judas, with the Devil at his back and holding a sack of gold, exchanges a knowing glance with the Pharisee.

TINTORETTOChrist Washing the Feet of His Disciples

During the Last Supper Christ rises, wraps a cloth around himself, and begins washing the feet of the apostles.

When Peter protests, Christ replies: "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shall know it hereafter."

Tintoretto sets the scene in the interior of a palazzo with a view of a canal. The example Christ gives his disciples of humility and charity was ostentatiously imitated on certain occasions by the upper classes of Venetian society: the Doge used to wash the feet of twelve poor people on Maundy Thursday, and twelve of the 'nobili' and their ladies did the same in 1524 at the Ospedale degli Incurabili (a hospital for incurable syphilitics).

LEONARDO da VinciThe Last Supper

There are differing opinions amongst art researchers as to which episode from the Gospels is depicted in the Last Supper. Some consider it to portray the moment at which Jesus has announced the presence of a traitor and the apostles are all reacting with astonishment, others feel that it also represents the introduction of the celebration of the Eucharist by Jesus, who is pointing to the bread and wine with his hands.

And yet others feel it depicts the moment when Judas, by reaching for the bread at the same moment as Jesus as related in the Gospel of St Luke (22:21), reveals himself to be the traitor. In the end, none of the interpretations is convincing.

Leonardo's Last Supper is not a depiction of a simple or sequential action, but interweaves the individual events narrated in the Gospels, from the announcement of the presence of a traitor to the introduction of the Eucharist, to such an extent that the moment depicted is a meeting of the two events.

As a result, the disciples' reactions relate both to the past and subsequent events. At the same time, however, the introduction of the Eucharist clearly remains the central event.

The Apostles from left to right: Bartholomew, James the Less, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Christ, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, Simon.

BELLINI, GiovanniAgony in the Garden

Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane while three of his disciples – Peter, James and John – sleep. An angel reveals a cup and a paten, symbols of his impending sacrifice. In the background, Judas approaches with the Roman soldiers who will arrest Jesus (New Testament, Mark 14: 32-43).

This painting is closely related to 'The Agony in the Garden' by Bellini's brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna. The two pictures both probably derive from a drawing by Giovanni's father, Jacopo Bellini. In Giovanni Bellini's version, the treatment of the dawn light is particularly noteworthy.

MANTEGNA, AndreaAgony in the Garden

In 1453 or 1454 Mantegna married Nicolosia Bellini and in so doing allies himself professionally with her brother, Giovanni, to whom he imparts Donatellian ideas.

The two London panels depicting the Agony in the Garden by Mantegna and by Bellini respectively define the artistic interdependence of the two brothers-in-law: the technical innovations and organization of the Paduan painter and the pre-eminence of the Venetian in the field of light and colour.

Mantegna's signature is inscribed, in Latin, on the rocks.

The Passion of Christ is the story of Jesus Christ's arrest, trial and suffering. It ends with his execution by crucifixion. The Passion is an episode in a longer story and cannot be properly understood without the story of the Resurrection.

The word Passion comes from the Latin word for suffering.

The crucifixion of Jesus is accepted by many scholars as an actual historical event. It is recorded in the writings of Paul, the Gospels, Josephus, and the Roman historian Tacitus. Scholars differ about the historical accuracy of the details, the context and the meaning of the event.Most versions of the Passion begin with the events in the Garden of Gethsemane. Some also include the Last Supper, while some writers begin the story as early as Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the applause of the crowds.

The Passion is a story about injustice, doubt, fear, pain and, ultimately, degrading death. It tells how God experienced these things in the same way as ordinary human beings.

The most iconic image of the Passion is the crucifix - Christ in his last agony on the cross - found in statues and paintings, in glass, stone and wooden images in churches, and in jewellery.The Passion appears in many forms of art. It is set to music, used as a drama and is the subject of innumerable paintings.

Spiritually, the Passion is the perfect example of suffering, which is one of the pervasive themes of the Christian religion.

Suffering is not the only theme of the Passion, although some Christians believe that Christ's suffering and the wounds that he suffered play a great part in redeeming humanity from sin.

Another theme is incarnation - the death of Jesus shows humanity that God had become truly human and that he was willing to undergo every human suffering, right up to the final agony of death. Another is obedience - despite initial, and very human, reluctance and fear, Jesus demonstrates his total acquiescence to God's wishes.

But the final theme is victory - the victory of Christ over death - and this is why the Passion story is inseparable from the story of the Resurrection.

art in detail: the passion of the christ (part 1)

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