Last year I took a Baroque Art class, because I needed art credits. I can not paint well, but i like art, so why not? What I did not realize is that Catholics had a major impact in the art of that time. As many of the paintings were scenes from the Bible(which helped me memorize their names), a common image was of the crucifixion of Christ. Throughout the course I saw various takes on it, but when my teacher pulled up the image below it captured me. This is the “Christ Crucified” by Diego Velazquez.
This image is so simple yet captures so much. The simple black background makes sure your focus is on the crucifixion, but more importantly on Christ, as His white skin contrasts the background. The crown of thorns reminds us of the torture He went through, yet it looks almost regal with the soft glow of the halo behind His head. We see his feet and hands bleeding from the nail holes and his ribs bleeding out from the spears piercing.
Christ to me looks so normal. He is not contorted or colored oddly as in an El greco style, He just looks dead. As proper, because as we see the stab of the spear on His side, we can assume, from knowing the Bible story, that He is dead. His hair dropping into His face shows gravity as His head is tilted to the ground. Again, showing regality and/or respect to the viewer with the tilt of Christ’s head. It is interesting to me how a head bent could show respect and it could show a surrender to death.
This is what we are leading up to on Good Friday. The death of a man. The death of the King. The death of a Savior. I sometimes see the crucifixion as an end; the final tragedy of Christ's life. It is not that entirely. While He was beaten, mocked and killed, and I do not want to take away the horror and sadness of it, He was not completely broken. Maybe the Crucifixion is supposed to be seen as the apex of Christ's ministry. The ultimate "I love you" to us as He died, so we may live forever with Him. This painting shows that. It shows the regality of Christ, the almost peaceful surrender to the will of the Father.
He died 2000 years ago, if He did not die for my salvation, I would not be able to hope to live with Him. Without His death we could not hope for eternity with the greatest Love. So as we go through Lent, let us reflect on this image. Let us reflect on the image of Christ, the Lord of the Universe, Creator of the galaxy, dead on a cross for you. Let us reflect on the kingship and the immeasurable love of God.
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