The Image of Christ

Finaldi, Gabriele,MacGregor, Neil

ISBN 10: 1857092929 / ISBN 13: 9781857092929

Published by National Gallery London, 2011

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Image of Christ
• Publisher: National Gallery London
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857092929
• ISBN 13: 9781857092929
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The Image of Christ expresses the view that modern secular audiences can engage with the masterpieces of Christian art at an emotional as well as a purely aesthetic or historical level. This book aims to help the viewer understand these pictures by focusing attention on the purpose for which they were made, and explores what they might have meant to their original viewers.

The authors trace how a recognizable image of Christ evolved, starting with the earliest symbols and metaphorical images such as the Sheperd, the Lamb and the Vine. They trace the emergence of a "true likeness," emphasizing the importance of the Veronica, the "miraculous portrait" said to have been imprinted on the cloth held out to Jesus on the way to Calvary. They describe how artists conveyed the paradox of Christ's dual nature—human and divine, weak and powerful, victim and victor—in portrayals of his infancy. They also show how images of Christ's suffering during the Passion were intended to convey a cosmic, not just a personal significance. Artists have attempted to put extremes of suffering and despair into an overal context of hope–a vein of hope that runs from the catacombs to Hiroshima and beyond.

These are images that speak, even to those who do not hold Christian beliefs. Artists had to make it clear that in representing the life and death of Jesus they were offering a continuing truth; we the spectators have to become eyewitnesses to an event that matters to us now. As a result, the different moments and aspects of Christ's life become, in the hands of great artists, a reflection of all human experience. The Virgin nursing her son expresses the feelings of love every mother has for her child. Christ mocked in innocence beset by violence. Christ risen and appearing to Mary Magdalene is a universal reaffirmation that love cannot be destroyed by death. Beyond their obvious religious significance, these are paintings that have a universal meaning.   

Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press

About the Author

Gabriele Finaldi is Deputy Director of the Prado Museum, Madrid, and a former curator ofthe National Gallery, London. Neil MacGregor is Director of the British Museum, London and former director of the National Gallery, London. Susanna Avery-Quash is Research Curator in the History of Collecting at the National Gallery, London. Xavier Bray is Chief Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, and a former Curator at the National Gallery, London. Erika Langmuir is former Head of Education at the National Gallery, London. Alexander Strugis is Director of The Holburne Museum of Art, Bath.