The Crucifixion - by GRÜNEWALD, Matthias - from Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar
(Click to enlarge)
The Crucifixion - by GRÜNEWALD, Matthias -
from Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar
(Click to enlarge)
| Art for Grünewald consisted in
providing a sermon in pictures, of proclaiming the sacred truths as
taught by the Church. This central panel of the Isenheim altarpiece
shows that he sacrificed all other considerations to this one
overriding aim. Like a preacher at Passiontide, Grünewald left
nothing undone to bring home to us the horrors of this scene of
suffering: Christ's dying body is distorted by the torture of the
Cross; the thorns of the scourges stick in the festering wounds
which cover the whole figure. The dark red blood forms a glaring
contrast to the sickly green of the flesh. By His features and the
impressive gesture of His hands, the Man of Sorrows speaks to us of
the meaning of His Calvary.
His suffering is reflected in the traditional group of Mary, in the garb of a widow, fainting in the arms of St John the Evangelist, to whose care the Lord has commended her, and in the smaller figure of St Mary Magdalene with her vessel of ointments, wringing her hands in sorrow. On the other side of the Cross, there stands the powerful figure of St John the Baptist with the ancient symbol of the Lamb carrying the Cross and pouring out its blood into the chalice of the Holy Communion. With a stern and commanding gesture he points towards the Savior, and over him are written the words that he speaks (according to the gospel of John 3:30): 'He must increase, but I must decrease'. There is little doubt that the artist wanted the beholder of the altarpiece to meditate on these words, which he emphasized so strongly by the pointing hand of St John the Baptist. Perhaps he even wanted us to see how Christ must grow and we diminish. For in this picture, in which reality seems to be depicted in all its unmitigated horror, there is one unreal and fantastic trait: the figures differ greatly in size. We need only compare the hands of St Mary Magdalene under the Cross with those of Christ to become fully aware of the astonishing difference in their dimensions. It is clear that in these matters Grünewald rejected the rules of modern art as it had developed since the Renaissance, and that he deliberately returned to the principles of medieval and primitive painters, who varied the size of their figures according to their importance in the picture. Just as he had sacrificed the pleasing kind of beauty for the sake of the spiritual lesson of the altarpiece, he also disregarded the new demand for correct proportions, since this helped him to express the mystic truth of the words of St John. |
Some people make perfection consist in an austere life;
others in prayer; others in frequenting the sacraments;
others in almsgiving. But they deceive themselves:
Perfect sanctity consists in loving God with our whole heart.
Jesus deserves our love because of
the love He has shown us in His Passion and Death.
 |
 Note
Bene: Bible verses quoted in this Book are from the
English Douay-Rheims translation commissioned by the Catholic Church. |
|
Divert
your mind to something else immediately.
