Calvary

Title: Calvary
Artist: Nikolai Ge
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 278 x 223 cm
Date: 1892
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

John 19:18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Ge reworked this canvas several times, as evidenced by the figure of the Roman centurion looming up unfinished, or partly repainted, in the background. He tried by formal means to translate the moral torment and suffering by accentuating the expressiveness of the faces, and refusing the academic vision of an ideal, inhuman body, unaltered by the Passion. The dramatic lighting intensifies the violent emotion that he wanted to trigger in the spectator. The work was considered shocking and near-blasphemous, and Tsar Alexander ordered it to be withdrawn from the 22nd exhibition of the Itinerants where it was shown for the first time.

Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge (February 1831 –June 1894), a Russian artist, was born into a noble family of French origin. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by his serf nurse, who taught him compassion for the humiliated and a keen sense of other people’s sorrows. Ge entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1850, graduating in 1857 with a Major Gold Medal for his picture The Witch of Endor Calling up the Spirit of the Prophet Samuel. He traveled extensively over the next dozen years, finally settling in St. Petersburg in 1870 where he became one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki, the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions. He was not a practicing Orthodox, but was deeply influenced by morality and Christian spirituality. He spent the last years of his life working on a cycle of paintings of the Passion of Christ, under the influence of the progressive writer Leo Tolstoy.

Conscience, Judas

Title: Conscience, Judas

Artist: Nikolai Ge

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 149 x 210 cm

Date: 1891

Location: tbd.

Mark 14:26-31 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. "You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."

Peter declared, "Even if all fall away, I will not."

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times."

But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the others said the same.

Ge’s painting, ‘Conscience, Judas’, suggests that Judas’s betrayal of Jesus led him into a state of profound isolation. As Jesus was telling his disciples how he knew they would all fall away, Judas had already done so. And even as Peter denies he would ever disown Jesus, another has already done so. We may not fully know by what reasoning Judas would betray Christ, but the bribe of thirty pieces of silver was enough for Judas to arrange for a private place for the arrest of Jesus.

Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge (27 February 1831 – 13 June 1894), was a Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs. He was born into a noble family of French origin, but his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his nurse, a serf who taught him compassion and empathy for the humiliated. His late paintings on New Testament subjects were praised by liberal critics like Vladimir Stasov, criticized by conservatives as illustrating Ernest Renan (the French philosopher best known for his influential works on early Christianity) rather than the New Testament, and forbidden by the authorities as blasphemous.

What is Truth? (Christ and Pilate)

Title: What is Truth? (Christ and Pilate)

Artist: Nikolai Ge

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 233 x 171 cm

Date: 1890

Location: The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

After the Romans along with the temple police had arrested Jesus, he was brought before the Governor. He was questioned by Pontius Pilate who stated: “So you are a king,” And when Jesus replies that he was born into this world to tell the truth, Pilate asks “What is truth?” before pronouncing “I don’t find this man guilty of anything!” Some have held that this question of Pilate's was asked in scorn, but his conduct throughout the trial shows that he was impressed.

In the 1880s, the themes of Christ and the Gospels resurfaced in Ge’s work. Unlike the "new hero" figure portrayed by many of his contemporaries, however, the figure of Jesus in Ge's paintings reflects a deeper, personal psyche. What is Truth (Christ and Pilate) was removed from exhibition under pressure from the Church. Although Ge was inspired by genuine religious feeling, his mute, haggard Jesus offended some.

Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge (27 February 1831 – 13 June 1894), a Russian artist, was born into a noble family of French origin. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by his serf nurse, who taught him compassion for the humiliated and a keen sense of other people’s sorrows. Ge entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1850, graduating in 1857 with a Major Gold Medal for his picture The Witch of Endor Calling up the Spirit of the Prophet Samuel. He traveled extensively over the next dozen years, finally settling in St. Petersburg in 1870 where he became one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki, the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions.