Religious week (4)

The final acknowledgement of ‘Holy Week’ comes from Elizabeth Tulloh who shares her thoughts on ‘The derision of Christ’ – a polychrome wooden sculpture in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

The NGV website description tells us: ‘This lifelike figure of Christ is thought to have been produced in north-east France during the fifteenth century, in a region where medieval Passion plays and commerce thrived. It depicts the ‘Ecce homo’ (Behold the Man) moment when the bound and flogged Christ was stripped and mocked by Roman soldiers for having proclaimed himself ‘King of the Jews’. Such figures were typically displayed in church niches, but in some communities they were brought out during Lent and ‘dressed’ realistically, with a living crown of thorns, actual rope binding the hands and a fresh palm frond as sceptre, and carried through the streets’.

Elizabeth describes ‘The derision of Christ‘: The humiliation and mockery of Jesus – believed by most then (and now) to be Jesus, the man – a lowly carpenter from a small and unassuming town in Palestine’s north. But many contemporaries came to believe he was also Jesus, the divine – God himself in human form. And it is this duality that is expressed so eloquently in this rare medieval sculpture on display in our Early Christian gallery.

During my guide training, I was designated this work for one of my ‘spot talks’. I now always include it in my NGVI tours in the weeks leading up to Easter because, as I noted in my piece on Teutonico’s little reliquary diptych in our Christmas newsletter, many young people and gallery visitors seem quite unfamiliar with the Christian narrative and therefore have no real context within which to understand a piece like this.

So after describing the work, I tell them the story. How many Jewish religious leaders believed Jesus had committed blasphemy (claiming to be the Son of God) – punishable by death under Jewish law. How the Jews had no power to carry out such a sentence while under Roman rule, so brought him to the Roman governor, Pilate, reporting Jesus had committed treason (claiming to be the King of the Jews) – punishable by death under Roman law. How Pilate could find nothing criminal in Jesus, but – to assuage the locals baying for Jesus’ blood (and, after all, it was a Roman governor’s job to keep the local peace) – handed him over to his soldiers to be crucified. How the soldiers stripped him, spat on him, beat him – humiliation. How the soldiers placed a scarlet robe (royalty) on his shoulders, fashioned a crown (kingship) out of thorns for his head, put a staff (authority) in his hands, then knelt before him crying ‘Hail! King of the Jews!’  – mockery.

This sculpture very much depicts Jesus, the man. Vulnerable – physically weak, completely alone… Remember: the night before, he had asked the twelve disciples, his closest followers, to keep watch with him when he felt ‘overwhelmed with sorrow’, but they fell asleep; the night before he had prayed that, if possible, his coming suffering might be avoided, but that was not to be; the night before, one of the twelve had betrayed him; during the same night, another of the twelve had denied even knowing him. Jesus – a man alone, suffering, about to undergo an unbearable ordeal.

But look at his face? No fear, no resentment, no anger, no hate. Jesus’ face here illustrates his response to the soldiers’ derision and to Pontius Pilate’s assertion of authority: ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.’ (Jn 19:11) Thus, this sculpture declares that Jesus is a man – but is also divine and, as such, ultimately in control of this situation. Christians believe that he did bear the unbearable and, in his resurrection, confirmed his divinity.

Easter 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, will have reminded Christians that the God they believe in knows what it means to be alone, to suffer, to dread what is to come. But also that the God they believe in offers hope – light at the end of what can be, at times, a very long, dark tunnel.

Elizabeth also suggests we might want to explore this sculpture further and recommends an essay in the NGV Art Journal no. 52, Sept 2014 – ‘France: The derision of Christ’ – by Sophie Matthiesson: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/france-the-derision-of-christ/; and the more academic article by Marc Antoine du Ry which can be found at: http://www.marcdury.com/sculpture/the-derision-of-christ.