A Month of Miracles Part 16 - Jesus Cures the Man Who Was Deaf and Mute

Title: Jesus Christ Cures the Man Who Was Deaf and Mute
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Illuminated Manuscript
Size: tbd
Date: c. 15th century
Location: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Austria.

Mark 7:31-37 - Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In this passage Mark deliberately echoes Old Testament language as he talks about Jesus. In v.32 Mark uses a very rare word to describe this man’s condition. You wouldn’t expect a word meaning ‘almost unable to speak’ to be very common, but in fact this is the only time it comes up in the whole New Testament. It is also rare in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Almost the only place it appears is in the prophecy of Isaiah, in a passage where he looks forward to the day when God will intervene in human history and bring about a restored humanity in a restored Creation (Isaiah 35:3-10).

The Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus is a 15th century Illuminated Manuscript held in the collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria.

Flagellation

Title: Flagellation
Artist: Michael Pacher
Medium: Panel
Size: 113 x 139.5 cm
Date: 1495-98
Location: Österreichische Galerie, Vienna.

John 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

The panel was part of the altarpiece in the parish church of Salzburg, but only a few fragments remain. The work was Pacher’s last and, at 3300 Rhenish guilders, best-paying commission. Sadly, in 1709, the Franciscan friars of Salzburg condemned the existing altarpiece as “ancient and decrepit”, and it was dismantled. The severely trimmed depictions of the Betrothal and Flagellation that survived originally formed the front and rear views of one panel. Reconstruction evinces a double-transforming altarpiece with a shrine-height of 5.5 meters and an overall height of 16 meters, making it the largest known retable of this late-Gothic altar type featuring a Gesprenge (decorative super structure).

Michael Pacher (c. 1435 — August 1498) was an Austrian Tyrolean painter and sculptor active during the last quarter of the 15th century. Pacher was one of the earliest artists to introduce the principles of Renaissance painting into Germany. He was a comprehensive artist with a broad range of skills: sculpting, painting, and architecture of complex wood and stone. He painted structures for altarpieces on a scale unparalleled in North European art. His influence is primarily North Italian, and his work shares characteristics with that of painters such as Andrea Mantegna; however, German influences are also evident in his work, especially in his wood sculpture. He was most active from 1462 until his death.

The Engagement of the Virgin

Title: The Engagement of the Virgin
Artist: Michael Pacher
Medium: Oil on wood
Size: 113 x 139.5 cm
Date: 1495-98
Location: Österreichische Galerie, Vienna.

Matthew 1:24-25: Joseph woke up. He did what the angel of the Lord commanded him to do. He took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until after she gave birth to a son. And Joseph gave him the name Jesus.

Luke focuses on God's revelation to Mary, whereas Matthew focuses on the revelation to Joseph. We should also observe that the circumstances under which Joseph was planning to divorce Mary were hardly light. Jewish and Roman law both demanded that a man divorce his wife if she were guilty of adultery. To fail to do so would violate law and custom, would bring enduring reproach on his household and would constitute embracing as wife one who had betrayed him in the worst manner conceivable in his culture. Roman law actually treated a husband who failed to divorce an unfaithful wife as a panderer exploiting his wife as a prostitute! But Joseph values commitment to God above his own honor.

Michael Pacher (c. 1435—August 1498) was an Austrian Tyrolean painter and sculptor active during the last quarter of the 15th century. Pacher was one of the earliest artists to introduce the principles of Renaissance painting into Germany. He was a comprehensive artist with a broad range of skills: sculpting, painting, and architecture of complex wood and stone. He painted structures for altarpieces on a scale unparalleled in North European art. His influence is primarily North Italian, and his work shares characteristics with that of painters such as Andrea Mantegna; however, German influences are also evident in his work, especially in his wood sculpture. He was most active from 1462 until his death.

Christ Comforted by an Angel

Title: Christ Comforted by an Angel

Artist: Paul Troger

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: tbd.

Date: c. 1730

Location: Museo Diocesano, Camerino, Italy.

Mark 14:32-36 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

The Cup of which Jesus speaks echoes the statement he made to James and John, the sons of Zebedee, when they asked that they sit next to him in his glory (Mark 10:37). Jesus replied "Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" Jesus often used the symbolism of the cup when referring to his fate, and may allude to the Cup of Judgment that appears often in the Old Testament.

Paul Troger (October 30, 1698 – July 20, 1762) was an Austrian painter, draughtsman and printmaker of the late Baroque period. Troger settled in Vienna in 1728 and became one of the best representatives of the Viennese Rococo painting. He alloyed successfully the Italian (Venetian and Neapolitan) traditions with the ideas of contemporary Austrian painting. He became director of the Academy of Art in Vienna, and influenced significant artists of the next generation, notably Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Josef Ignaz Mildorfer, Johann Wenzel Bergl.

Madonna and Child

Title: Madonna and Child

Artist: Marianne Stokes

Medium: Tempera on panel

Size: 80 x 60cm

Date: 1907

Location: Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery

In art, the term “The Madonna” is applied specifically to an artwork in which Mary, with or without the infant Jesus, is the focus and central figure of the picture. Mary and the infant may be surrounded by adoring angels or worshiping saints, however paintings which have a narrative content are usually given a title that reflects the scene.

Such “Goddess worship” was not an original component of the Christian church. Shortly before 400 AD, Epiphanius of Salamis found it necessary to denounce women of Thrace, Arabia and elsewhere for worshiping Mary as an actual goddess. It may have been this zealotry to suppress heresies that led to difficulties for the early church in its uphill struggle eclipsing the worship of Isis. Faced with such difficulty church leaders, such as Cyril of Alexandria, began highlighting divine attributes that could be redirected to Mary, Queen of Heaven. It was during this period that a story began to circulate that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and his angels.

The Madonna and Child was one of many works Stokes produced based on spiritual themes. Painted in Ragusa on the Dalmatian coast, overlooking the Adriatic Sea, the model for the Virgin Mary was a local village girl. The costume is representative of a traditional Dalmatian costume from the time, and provides a bright focus for Stokes to express her style as a colorist. In the background Stokes surrounds the Holy mother and child with thorny stems seeming to refer to the future crucifixion of Christ.

Marianne Stokes (1855 Graz – August 1927 London), born Marianne Preindlsberger in the Austrian province of Styria, was an Austrian painter. Financially independent after winning a prize for her talent she traveled to France where she studied under such artists as Dagnan-Bouveret and Courtois. She settled in England after her marriage to Adrian Scott Stokes, the landscape painter. Her interest in biblical themes is typical of the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, a group of artists working in the second half of the nineteenth century.