The Crucifixion in 20th-Century Painting

Lecture at the Liberty Church in Philadelphia, June 2013.

Slideshow by Stephen W. Evans; published on Youtube in July 2013.

Crucifixion is the central event in the life and passions of Jesus Christ. The evangelists faithfully recorded this event in four Gospels composed in the 1st century later to become part of the New Testament. As one Biblical scholar pointed out, "one of the most certain historical facts about Jesus is that he was condemned to be crucified by the Roman prefect of Judea." [1]

One of Christ's oldest surviving figures on the cross is the Crucifixion on an ivory plaque in London that was carved in the dawn of Imperial Christianity somewhere between 420 and 430 in the North of Italy. On this ivory relief, Christ is still depicted as young, muscular, without a beard, and with his eyes wide open. He is hanging painlessly on the cross with only his hands being nailed to it—symbolizing heavenly victory rather than human defeat, triumph instead of humiliation.

Generally speaking, art historians distinguish three main phases in depicting Crucifixion in the history of Christian art. These phases parallel Christian historical developments from the Byzantine through the Medieval up to the Renaissance periods.

In Byzantine religious art that has preserved antiquity's cultural heritage and adapted it to the needs of its tradition, the Crucifixion represented "the simplicity, dignity, and grace of Classicism fully assimilated by the Byzantine artist into a perfect synthesis with Byzantine piety and pathos." [2]

Icon of the Crucifixion of Jesus.

In contrast to the Byzantine model, the medieval Crucifixion gradually shifts the focus from the divine to human Christ, from his glory to suffering, and from salvation to sin. The Byzantine Christus Triumphans, who is shown alive and emotionless on the cross and whose image displays both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, gave way to a new depiction of Christus Patiens, "hanging dead on the cross, the head inclined and the eyes closed." [3]

The Crucifixion image itself was relatively infrequent in the first ten Christian centuries. In the second millennium, it grew way beyond its importance as the central episode of the Passion cycle and "gradually and increasingly became the principal theme of Christian art, continuing to reflect theological and religious trends up to the Reformation." [4]

In the Renaissance paintings, the Crucifixion's novel element was its attention to historical details and accuracy of representation along with the pictorial composition that was organized based on the recently discovered illusionistic perspective. As the art scholars point out: "Masaccio's Holy Trinity, a work created [in the 15th century,] at the very beginning of the history of Renaissance painting, embodies [these] two principal Renaissance interests: realism based on observation and the application of mathematics to pictorial organization in the new science of perspective." Trinity and down at the tomb," [5]

Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece,

(Crucifixion), c. 1512–15, detail.

In 20th-century art, the Crucifixion narrative acquires a new and broader meaning that is not confined only to the Christian theological doctrines. We are witnessing a distinctive fourth epoch in the depiction of Crucifixion that is different from the Byzantine, Medieval, and the Renaissance eras.

20th-century paintings of the Crucifixion escape usual definitions, extend customary borders, deny historical frameworks and transcend religious traditions. Contemporary artists explore this religious theme in various forms, ways, styles, and standpoints that depend on their artistic individuality, philosophy, worldview, and how they perceive and understand historical events of their time.