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THE BLADE, TOLEDO, OHIO ■ S U N D A Y , APRIL 4, 2004 S E C T I O N B , P A G E 6

1 2 3 THE PASSION The world’s religions take different approaches to Christ in their art

By JUDY TARJANYI SPECIAL TO THE BLADE As the controversy simmers over Mel Gibson’s graphic film depiction of Christ’s suffering and death, The Passion of the Christ, a centuries-old difference of artistic opinion continues to play out on the canvases of the world’s religious artists. It is a contrast most easily cast in terms of East versus West, with each of 1. Descent From the Cross, an the major Christian churches depict- attend Christ’s body. icon at St. Elias Antiochian ing the events of Christ’s passion in dif- Such a depiction, said Larry Nichols, the Orthodox Church. ferent ways. museum’s curator of European painting and In the icons of the Eastern Orthodox before 1900, would have been 2. Detail from Valentin churches, the crucifixion of Christ is a aimed at eliciting an emotive response in Lendenstreich’s Wings of the “passionless passion,” affirming ’ worshipers looking at the painting in a Wullersleben Triptych, The suffering, but focusing on the higher church, likely while receiving communion. . Toledo spiritual ideal of his death, which Chris- , for example, who also tians believe brought love, mercy, and for- painted Christ’s descent from the cross, Museum of Art. giveness to humanity. intended to have people kneel before his 3. El Greco’s The Agony in the Meanwhile, in the Western Christian paintings in a gesture of faith. “That’s what Garden, Toledo Museum of Art. church’s paintings, emotion, often aided many of these highly charged paintings by more explicit imagery, reigns supreme meant — to have one spiritually emulate 4. A crucifixion icon by the Rev. in the interest of moving the viewer the suffering for the faith and one’s personal Paul Albert of St. Elias. toward faith. salvation.” The Eastern way of the devotional Some artists achieved this through 5. Detail from Lendenstreich’s icon, a depiction that accurately rep- graphic representation, as in Valentin Wings of the Wullersleben resents Christian history but seeks to Lendenstreich’s wings of the Wullersleben Triptych, The Agony in the transcend it, is illustrated in The Cruci- Triptych in the museum’s Gallery 16. One Garden. fixion, a traditional icon done by a Greek panel of the piece shows a blood-spat- monastic. In it, Christ’s side is shown tered Christ being scourged in a violent 6. Doret's The Mocking of Christ, pierced by a spear, with a faint sugges- scene in which one man brandishes a Toledo Museum of Art tion of water and blood spewing forth, scourge of thorny branches and another 7. and prints identify where nails were wields a stick with chains in one hand The emotion of Jean driven into the feet and hands. But and bundled branches in the other. Imple- Jouvenet’s , Christ’s face has a peaceful expression, ments of the scourging, including a stick Toledo Museum of Art, contrasts indicating the completion of his task. of spiked cords, are strewn on the ground. with the first icon shown in the Orthodox Christians, explained the Western artists also have employed the top row and the icon at left. Rev. Paul Albert, an iconographer and pas- light, color, and expression, to create the tor of St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox tragic mood of Christ’s passion, as in Christ born El Greco’s well-known painting of Church in Sylvania, see Christ’s suffer- Carrying the Cross, a work in the museum’s Christ at Gethsemane, which is cur- ing as a means to an end and the cross Gallery 19 attributed to a follower of Gio- rently on loan from the Toledo museum as a sign of victory. vanni Bellini. In the early 16th-century to London’s National Gallery. Although Even in the image of the crucified painting, Christ is shown with his cross on the painting conveys intense feeling, Christ that Father Paul painted several one shoulder, but the image contains only it does so in what Mr. Nichols called years ago and had mounted on a large a faint suggestion of blood from his thorny an anti-naturalistic way that adds to cross, it is mainly the slightly bent pos- crown. The use of light gives the image its power. ture of Christ’s body that suggests his suf- its ethereal, melancholic quality. “It represents Christ at the moment fering rather than explicit depictions In Gustave Doret’s The Mocking of of recognition of his impending mortality. of his wounds. Christ in Gallery 32, a seated, bound Christ His divinity and humanity are embod- To some, such images might appear wears the crown of thorns and rivulets of ied at that moment of decision-making. to be emotion-less, but Father Paul said, blood stream down his face, but it is his The point of that painting is ‘your will, seen through the eyes of the Orthodox expression and posture in relation to those 4 not my will.’ ” Christ’s hands especial- faith and liturgy, they deepen under- of his tormenters that evoke the strongest ly are important in El Greco’s painting, standing. response. The taunting figures jeer at him Mr. Nichols added, because they seem “The icon is always set in the context in close proximity to his body and face. One to weigh the task that is before the man- of our ethos or atmosphere of piety, even kneels beside him and rests his elbows God. which includes the progression of [wor- on Christ’s leg in an act of mock prayer. El Greco, though considered a ship] services . . . The image without The Eastern church would see such Spanish artist, originally was from the context is not able to fulfill its pur- depictions as possibly eclipsing “the brighter Crete, where Orthodox Christianity pose.” light of resurrection,” Father Paul said. was practiced, and started his career By contrast, The Deposition, a large “Western art images can trap one in an emo- as an icon painter for the Greek Ortho- Baroque painting by the French artist Jean tional wasteland,” in which viewers may not dox Church. Jouvenet in the Toledo Museum of Arts have a way to enter into the brighter light. In considering the differences in Gallery 28, evokes an immediate emo- Father Paul said icons resonate with the the way East and West have portrayed tional response in its tender depiction same quality as the scriptures, which inten- the passion, neither emerges as more of Christ being taken down from the tionally minimize graphic detail, but con- spiritual than the other. cross. In the scene, a crown of thorns and vey a deeper truth. “We don’t feel that the Rather, Mr. Nichols said, “One is basin with bloodied towels and sponge literal dimension is the only dimension after a naturalism and the other is after are in the foreground and Mary, the being communicated,” he said. “In the an abstraction. I wouldn’t call one bet- mother of Christ, gazes heavenward West there is more of a focus on suffering.” ter than the other. I just examine intent.” with outstretched hands as two disciples East and West may meet in the Greek-

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