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My favorite renditions of the Crucifixion (thread):
1 - Dali's "Homus Hypercubus":
The surrealism takes the cross as its ultimate symbol of irrationality, asymmetry and transcendence. Here Dali places Christ above the cross, decentralized (notice the shadows), representing the victory against the cube (rationalism, quantity).
The surrealism takes the cross as its ultimate symbol of irrationality, asymmetry and transcendence. Here Dali places Christ above the cross, decentralized (notice the shadows), representing the victory against the cube (rationalism, quantity).
2 - Grünewald's "Crucifixion", from the Isenheimer Altar:
Joris-Karl Huysmans makes a great comment on this painting in "Là-Bas". I will translate it below. (Also here is the complete center image of the Isenheimer Altar)
Joris-Karl Huysmans makes a great comment on this painting in "Là-Bas". I will translate it below. (Also here is the complete center image of the Isenheimer Altar)
"Indeed, the naturalism never escaped in such topics; no painter touched the matter of the divine grave and so brutally dipped his brush in the platelets of the humours and in the bloody buckets of the perforations. It was excessive and it was terrible. Grünewald was the most 
fanatic among the realists; but, looking this Redeemer of the bums, this God of haughtiness, this changed. From this ulcerated head lights were filtered; a superhuman expression illuminated the effervescence of the fleshes, the convulsion of the traits. This extended carrion
was that of a God, and, without halo, without nimbus, wearing the simple vests of this disheveled crown, sown of red grains by points of blood, Jesus appeared, in his heavenly super-essence, between the Virgin, stunned, drunk of cries, and St. John, whose burned eyes couldn't
reach the fusion of tears anymore.
Grünewald was the most fanatic among the idealists. No painter exalted so magnificently the heights and so resolutely ascended to the peak of the soul in the sky's disturbed orb. He had been to the two extremes and he had, from a triumphant
Grünewald was the most fanatic among the idealists. No painter exalted so magnificently the heights and so resolutely ascended to the peak of the soul in the sky's disturbed orb. He had been to the two extremes and he had, from a triumphant
dirt, extracted the most fine fragments of the dilections, the most acute essences of the cries. In this canvas, it was revealed the masterpiece of the closed art, summoned to render the invisible and the tangible, to manifest the bodies' mourning filth, to sublimate the
soul's infinite distress.
No, there isn't equivalent of this in no language."
- Joris-Karl Huysmans, Là-Bas.
No, there isn't equivalent of this in no language."
- Joris-Karl Huysmans, Là-Bas.
3 - Lovis Corinth's "Red Christ":
Truly an horrifying and visceral painting, portraying an impression of pain, suffering, fainting. The expressionism is appropriate to represent such sensations. Horst Uhr says very well when he says that Lovis paints Christ's figure as
Truly an horrifying and visceral painting, portraying an impression of pain, suffering, fainting. The expressionism is appropriate to represent such sensations. Horst Uhr says very well when he says that Lovis paints Christ's figure as
"like some hyerogliphic symbol of pain." The whole canvas is covered by this flesh-like tone of red, covering the scene in blood, the Saviour's blood, spilled by and in the hands of numerous vile men. It affirms the salvation along with Man's cruelty, emphasizing God's goodness.
4 - Georges Rouault's "Crucifixion":
Here, the form is dictated phenomenologically by the perception, and, as René Huyghe says, it's impossible to interpret or like Rouault's work without the word "soul" in our minds. However, Rouault still pins a theme in his painting.
Here, the form is dictated phenomenologically by the perception, and, as René Huyghe says, it's impossible to interpret or like Rouault's work without the word "soul" in our minds. However, Rouault still pins a theme in his painting.
Rouault has to resonate in our soul before we can really "see" the final piece. The fruit of the technic is just a seed for the actual painting, which appears not in front of us, but in ourselves. That's why Bachelard speaks, talking about art, of a "phenomenology of the soul".
I finish this thread saying: have a good Good Friday, meditate well, guard the fast and the abstinence and never forget what Christ did for us, brothers.
