Ascension

Title: Ascension

Artist: Salvador Dali

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 115 x 123 cm

Date: 1958

Location: Private collection.

Mark 16:19-20 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Both Jewish and gentile readers could relate to the idea of an ascension of a great hero, but for Jesus to sit at God’s right hand goes beyond this idea – it means that Jesus reigns as God’s agent. Reference to this singular honor is found in Psalms 110:1, and its significance attested to again in the Letter to the Hebrews 1:13, when its author writes “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’?”

Dali said that his inspiration for the theatrical ‘Ascension’ came from a "cosmic dream" that he had in 1950, some eight years before the painting was completed. In the dream, which was in vivid color, he saw the nucleus of an atom, which we see in the background of the painting. In this painting the focus is on the bottoms of the supine figure's feet, an homage to Mantegna's landmark ‘Dead Christ’,' an early and daring example of perspective. Vanishing-point perspective was the forerunner of Dali's own optical illusions.

Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. He was born in the small town of Figueres, Spain. Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. Dali's name is synonymous with the Surrealist art movement. A prolific artist, Dali created more than 1500 paintings during his life time, as well many works in other media including prints, drawings, sculpture, book illustration, and theater set designs.

*

“The grace of God be with you all! Amen.” Heb 13:25

Jesus Appears to the Disciples After the Resurrection

Title: Jesus Appears to the Disciples After the Resurrection
Artist: Imre Morocz
Medium: Oil on canvas on plywood
Size: 30 x 40cm
Date: 2009
Location: Private Collection

Mark 16:14-18 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

This passage, not part of the original Mark that consists of the material to end of Mark 16:8, is nonetheless used as a clear exhortation for evangelism, a direct command to “Go into all the world and preach the good news”.

The moment when Jesus finally appeared to the eleven is ethereally captured in this painting. A wash of warm light spills over the resurrected Christ. His assembled disciples gaze at his wound, kneel before him, and recognize at last what they had failed to see before.

Imre Morocz (b. 1967) is a contemporary portrait artist and landscape painter from Hungary. His paintings are an expression of his deep love of the Advaita school of Hindu philosophy, whereby everything is considered a part of a great Oneness. To view his own site and for links to other sites featuring more of his work, use the following link: http://www.paintingsilove.com/artist/imremorocz

Christ and his Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

Title: Landscape with Christ and his Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

Artist: Jan Wildens and Hans Jordaens III

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 123 x 168 cm

Date: C. 1640s

Location: The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Mark 16:12-13 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

He is said to have appeared to them in another form, perhaps in the form of a traveler, in another dress than what he usually wore. Regardless, these disciples should have recognized him, and in an event more fully related in Luke 24:16–31, when they finally shed their doubts, they knew him immediately. The rest also did not believe, and suspected that the others eyes had deceived them. The proofs of Christ’s resurrection were given gradually, cautiously, that so the assurance with which the apostles preached this doctrine afterward might be the more satisfying. That his staunchest followers were disbelieving at first, shows that afterward they did not believe it capriciously but rather with a full conviction.

Jan Wildens (Antwerp, c. 1596 – 16 October 1653) was a Flemish Baroque painter and draughtsman. He is best known for painting landscape backgrounds for Rubens and for many artists in his circle, but his finest independent work shows he was an accomplished master in his own right. The figures in this landscape were painted by Hans Jordaens III, another Antwerp artist. Jordaens (b. 1595 - 1643, Antwerp), who appears to have been fairly successful, trained with his father, Hans Jordaens II, who was also a painter. The younger Jordaens was responsible for finishing works by Abraham Govaerts after the latter's death in 1626.

Mary Magdalene Announcing the Resurrection to the Apostles

Title: Mary Magdalene Announcing the Resurrection to the Apostles

Artist: Unknown

Medium: Illumination on parchment

Size: 18 x 14 cm

Date: c. 1123

Location: St. Albans Psalter, St Godehard's Church, Hildesheim.

Mark 16:10-11 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

Yet again, the disciples are unable to grasp the magnitude of what has occurred. Despite Jesus having told them on a number of occasions that he would be raised from the dead (e.g. Mark 9:9-10), they refused to believe what Mary Magdalene had to report.

The St Albans Psalter, also known as the Albani Psalter or the Psalter of Christina of Markyate, is an English illuminated manuscript, one of several Psalters known to have been created at or for St Albans Abbey in the 12th century. It is widely considered to be one of the most important examples of English Romanesque book production. The almost unprecedented lavishness of decoration contains a number of iconographic innovations that would endure throughout the Middle Ages.

The main artist decorating the St Albans Psalter is called the ‘Alexis Master’ after a section of the work which contains the biography of a fifth-century Roman saint called Alexis. The Alexis Master is credited with introducing a new figurative and narrative style into English art in the 1120s. This new style was much indebted to eleventh-century German and early twelfth-century Italo-Byzantine style.