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Happy Easter.
I hope yours progressed a bit more smoothly than ours. The battle of the house and conversion rages on over here. Too many things to mention, and probably not good material for the internet any more than it would be for my diary.
So, rather than focus on our rather perilous attempts swim across the Tiber as members of the swim team, I thought it would be interesting to ponder the images of Easter.
I love the work of master artists, especially the ones devoted to my beloved, adopted religion.
Most tend to cover the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus, the Passion, and the suffering of martyred saints.
Is there anything more beautiful than the Madonna and Child? Is there anything more moving than any of the images produced by master artists depicting the Passion?
Probably not.
We know mothers and children. We also know pain and suffering: how to deal it out, how to recreate it on a canvas.
I’ve never seen a believable master work of the risen Christ.
The rest of the message has been conveyed very convincingly, and movingly.
Images of a risen Christ looking very handsome, rising up to the clouds in a Charlton Heston pose, Cecil B Demille-style feel wrong on some level. It’s too flashy for the God we know to be both sublime and ineffable.
The best image to convey the message of a risen Lord is The Three Marys at the Tomb by William Adolphe Bourgereau. For me, at least, it is.
It’s an odd mixture of confusion, joy, and grief on the faces of the women combined with the faint and obscured image of an angel within the lit tomb that you find in the image.
The best image is an empty tomb.
Why?
Because unlike the brutality and suffering and sacrifice of the Passion, I don’t think we can fully understand transcendence and a risen Lord. At least, not enough to do Him justice in a painting.
We are the Three Marys at the Tomb, today.
