Easter Sunday - Mary Magdalene at the Tomb

Title: Mary Magdalene at the Tomb
Artist: Antiveduto Gramatica
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 120 x 157 cm
Date: 1620-22
Location: The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

John 20:11-13 - Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” she said, “They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.”

Such heavenly messengers appear at many of the significant points in salvation history. Their presence witnesses that the powers of heaven have been at work here. Often in Scripture the person who encounters an angel is struck with terror. But if Mary felt such a reaction, John does not mention it. Indeed, there is no indication that she even recognizes them as angels, presumably due to the depth of her grief. The angels speak to her with great compassion. In the face of this grief the angels do not bombard her with good news but rather ask the question that can lead to the healing word.

Antiveduto Gramatica (c. 1571 – April 1626), was a was a proto-Baroque Italian painter, active near Rome. He was born in either Siena or Rome, and according to Giovanni Baglione the artist was given the name Antiveduto ("foreseen") because his father had a premonition that he would be soon be born during a journey between his native Siena and Rome. It was in Rome that Antiveduto was baptised, raised and based his career.

The Revolutionary

Title: The Revolutionary
Artist: Churches Advertising Network
Medium: Printed poster
Size: Various
Date: 1999
Location: Various

This arresting picture of Jesus as a revolutionary, imitating the style of the famous image of 1960s revolutionary Che Guevara, was produced as an advertising poster encouraging people to go to church during Easter 1999. This poster image was produced by the Churches Advertising Network – an ecumenical charity, whose executive team comprises senior communications officers from the Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and URC churches; from the Catholic newspaper The Universe, and from the Church Army and Evangelical Alliance an independent group of UK Christian communicators. More of their work can be found on their website http://www.churchads.net/

One of the group, Peter Owen Jones, describes seeing the design for the poster, “We have a picture of Christ cast in the same pose as Che Guevara... as a piece of communication which is trying to say this man was a revolutionary – a spiritual revolutionary – it is simple and memorable”. Another member of the group which produced this version of Jesus said “Jesus was not crucified for being meek and mild. He challenged authority. He was given a crown of thorns in a cruel parody of his claims about proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Our poster has the most arresting picture our advertisers could find to convey all this – the image deliberately imitates the style of the well-known poster of Che Guevara.”

The Easter Story

Title: The Easter Story

Artist: Scott McDaniel

Medium: Four Color Process comic book cover

Size: 17 x 26 cm

Date: 1994

Location: From “The Life of Christ: The Easter Story” New York: Marvel/Nelson

Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Conventionally, it is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently.

The Passion of Christ has been interpreted by artists throughout the millennia since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Each artist brings a personal perspective to the Gospel story, as did each evangelist when they documented the life of Christ. The oldest of these Gospels is that of Mark, which is generally accepted as having been written around 70 AD. Mark probably prepared his Gospel for a specific community that was suffering for it’s faith, and although the Roman church was persecuted in the time of Nero, it was by no means alone.

Scott McDaniel (b. 1965 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a comic book artist who has drawn numerous books. Notable artwork includes Marvel Comics' Fall from Grace storyline for the Daredevil series, and a long run on DC Comics Batman as regular penciller. His work can be viewed on his website http://www.scottmcdaniel.net/.