19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 8 - The Disciples at Emmaus

Title: The Disciples at Emmaus
Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 55.2 x 47 cm
Date: 1853
Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 8

Luke 24:28-35 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Delacroix has located this miraculous apparition in a darkened interior, which becomes dramatically illuminated by Christ’s golden halo. Jesus stands with a powerful backward stance, echoing the diagonal line of the staircase, breaking the bread with his large hands. The casual posture of the disciple on the right conveys the relaxation of a meal shared among friends, whereas the disciple on the left registers the wonder of the moment. The surprised disciple’s face is turned toward Jesus, Delacroix preferring the use of a bodily gesture—an up-flung left hand—rather than facial expression to convey amazement. In addition to shrewd compositional strategies and theatrical lighting, the artist’s characteristically loose paint handling of his later compositions adds a further note of dramatic energy to the work.

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (April 1798 – August 1863) was a French painter regarded from the outset of his career as a leader of the French Romantic school. In 1815 he entered the studio of the neoclassical painter Pierre Narcisse Guérin, where he met Théodore Géricault, a romantic painter by whom he was much influenced. Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on color and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modeled form. Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement.

Feeding of the 4000

Title: Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Artist: Giovanni Lanfranco

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 229 x 426 cm

Date: 1620-23

Location: National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

The sixth miracle account that displays Jesus' power over nature is recorded in Mark 8:1-9. This miracle is known as Feeding of the 4000, or Miracle of the Seven Loaves and Fishes.

During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” Jesus asked, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand were present. After he had sent them away, he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

Lanfranco’s ‘Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes’ was commissioned for the Blessed Sacrament chapel in the Basilica of Saint Paul Fuori le Mura, outside Rome. Lanfranco made eight canvases for this chapel on the theme of the Eucharist. This scene of the miracle is seen in perspective from below, therefore the painting was intended to hang high. The wonderfully bright Jesus stands out against the darker tones of the people who have come to hear the Messiah. Jesus shows the loaves to the people, reassuring them. All the figures are drawn in a different pose, some with theatrical movements of head and hands. The gestures remain believable however, a tour-de-force in such anecdotal painting.

Giovanni Lanfranco (January 1582 - November 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. His talent for drawing allowed him to begin an apprenticeship with the Bolognese artist Agostino Carracci, brother of Annibale Carracci, working alongside fellow Parmese Sisto Badalocchio in the local Farnese palaces. When Agostino died in 1602, both young artists moved to Annibale's large and prominent Roman workshop. Lanfranco painted many religious decorations for churches and palaces in Rome.

Title: Loaves and Fishes

Artist: Cornelius Edmund Sullivan

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 150 x 240 cm

Date: c. 2000

Location: Private collection

This miracle is similar to that of feeding the five thousand, and yet there are very significant differences. The ground of Jesus’ compassion in the first miracle was "the fact that the people are like sheep without a shepherd"; whereas, in this, "it is the fact that they have been so long without food." Perhaps the most significant difference of all is that this miracle took place among the Gentiles, whereas those fed in the other were principally Jews. This key fact explains why two such miracles were performed, showing God's fairness in dealing with Gentiles as he had dealt with the chosen people. Christ is the bread of life for all, not merely for Jews alone.

Cornelius Edmund Sullivan is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. For many years he was an Artist in Residence for the City of Cambridge, MA School Department. At the same time he served as the elected Artist's Representative to The Board of Directors of The Boston Center for the Arts and was a Master Etching Printer at Impressions Workshop Atelier in Boston. His works are in many private collections and in universities and museums. More of his work can be seen on his website http://www.sullivanart.com/

The Temptation of Christ

Title: The Temptation of Christ

Artist: Titian (Tiziano Vecelli)

Medium: Oil on panel

Size: 90 x 70 cm

Date: c. 1516-1525

Location: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Matthew 4:3-4: And the tempter coming up to him said, If thou be Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves of bread. But he answering said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God's mouth.

This painting portrays one of three temptations that Christ faced during his forty days fast in the desert. Christ is being tempted by a young demon, perhaps symbolizing the true corruption of innocence, that presents a stone and challenges Christ to perform the miracle of turning it into bread, proving that he is truly the Son of God. He is tempted to despair of his Father's goodness, and to distrust his Father's care. It is one of the wiles of Satan to take advantage of our outward condition; and those who are brought into straits have need to double their guard. Christ answered all the temptations of Satan with “It is written”; to set an example, he appealed to what was written in the Scriptures. Let us learn not to take any wrong courses for our supply when our wants are ever so pressing: in some way the Lord will provide. Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, may have commissioned this painting in about 1516-25.

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488 – August 1572) better known as Titian, was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, in the Republic of Venice. Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art. Few of the pupils and assistants of Titian became well-known in their own right; for some being his assistant was probably a lifetime career, but it is said that Titian employed El Greco (or Dominikos Theotokopoulos) in his last years.