19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 14 - Sleeping Lazarus

Title: Sleeping Lazarus
Artist: Franciszek Zmurko
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: tbd.
Date: 1877
Location: Private Collection.

19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 14

John 11:38-44 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Zmurko depicts Lazarus is in the tomb, but the light shining on his body suggests that the stone blocking its entrance has been partially pulled away. He is unconscious, perhaps still dead, but he also seems to be listening. Does he hear the voice of Jesus, calling his name? Zmurko specialized in paintings in which the subject seemed half-awake, half-asleep. The person in this painting, Lazarus, is not bothered by thoughts, but rests in an unconscious state. His muscles are shrunken in death but his face has a look of utter peace - and why not? He has led a good life and been a friend of Jesus - could he ask for more?

Franciszek Zmurko (July 1859 – October 1910) was a Polish painter. Zmurko began drawing lessons as a young boy in his hometown with the painter Franciszek Tepa. As an adolescent he moved to Krakow to study at the Academy of Fine Arts where he had lessons from Jan Matejko. In 1877 Zmurko moved to Vienna, Austria where he was accepted at the Vienna Academy, but left soon thereafter to study under Aleksander Wagner in Munich. Zmurko returned to Krakow in 1880 and then moved to Warsaw in 1882 where he remained until his death in 1910.

All Souls' Day

Title: All Souls' Day

Artist: Witold Pruszkowski

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: tbd

Date: 1888

Location: National Museum, Warsaw.

In Western Christianity, All Souls’ Day commemorates the faithful departed. The Roman Catholic celebration is associated with the doctrine that the souls of the faithful who at death had not yet attained full sanctification and moral perfection, a requirement for entrance into Heaven, may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the Mass. Traditionally, those observing All Souls’ day would attend the cemetery to visit, bless and decorate the graves. Loved ones often offer a spray of flowers or lighted candles. The lighted candles signify that the love, hope and joy they shared with departed shall be kept forever burning.

Pruszkowski’s haunting painting captures the both the ethereal otherworldliness of the cemetery, and the plaintive loss depicted on the young woman’s face. Rendered as though the viewer has interrupted a private moment of reflection, her eyes – wide - speak to us even through the diffuse light of the scene. Only a single candle burns. Faint, but resolute.

Witold Pruszkowski (1846 – October 10, 1896) was a Polish painter and draughtsman. He lived his youth in Odessa and Kiev, but later went to Paris where he served an apprenticeship under the renowned portrait painter Tadeusz Gorecki. He continued his studies in Munich and then Kraków under Jan Matejko. Though starting his career as a portrait painter, Pruszkowski later moved to painting subject matter with legend, fable, of folk-tale themes. The visionary element in these works draw their inspiration from the writings of the great Polish Romantic poets, in particular Juliusz Slowacki and Zygmunt Krasinski, and constitute a compelling link between Pruszkowski and the painters of the Young Poland (Mloda Polska) group.

Resurrection

Title: Resurrection

Artist: Jan Styka

Medium: Oil on cardboard

Size: 41 x 32.5 cm

Date: 1901

Location: Private collection

The Gospel of Mark has no actual account of the resurrection. Events progress from the entombment to the morning when the Sabbath has past. An argument can be made that the resurrection, while a real event according to the unanimous testimony of the canonical Gospels, is not historical in the sense that ordinary events are. It occurs at a point where history ends and God’s end-time kingdom begins. It is not in itself an observable occurrence. No one saw God raise Jesus from the dead. Nor can it be verified. In a sense, it is an inference from the disciple’s Easter visions, and the empty tomb.

Yet the mind can not help but wonder what kind of a sight it would have been to witness. According to Matthew 27:66, the chief priests and the Pharisees, with the sanction of Pilate, went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard. But even here there is no clear indication if anything was witnessed, or if everything happened behind sealed doors. In keeping with tradition, however, Styka’s painting depicts a transcendent, glorious Christ, at the moment of his freedom from the tomb, the moment when God’s promise of eternal life becomes fulfilled.

Jan Styka (April 8, 1858 - April 11, 1925) was an ethnic Polish-born painter noted for producing large historical and Christian panoramas. Styka, son of an officer in Austria-Hungary, attended school in his native Lemberg and then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Afterward he took up residence in Italy for a short time before moving to France where the great art movements at Montmartre and Montparnasse were taking shape, and where he would spend a large part of his life.