"My Lord and My God!" -Post-Resurrection Jesus and His Disciples As Depicted in 17th Century Paintings

 

Throughout the years, religious paintings have had a major hold on art pieces, especially during the renaissance.  Along with the renaissance came experimentation and exploration of many ways to tell stories and ideas. There was experimentation with lighting, shape, composition, and perspective. Many times, we see the typical iconographic image of Christ on a cross, like in many paintings and sculptures one might find in a Catholic church. Other common paintings, like Da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1498), depict Jesus with his disciples the day before he was to be crucified. What often is not as commonly depicted is a post-resurrection Christ interacting with his followers before his ascension into Heaven.

What has been done here is I limited my search of paintings so that they fall in the 17^th century, so that we can see how similar they are stylistically. In my search, I discovered a very fascinating trend that within the span of 30 years or so, so many paintings about Jesus discussing with his disciples over dinner at Emmaus (see Luke 24). I selected three well-known depictions of this event for the viewer to see their similarities and uniqueness. In addition to Emmaus, another common theme has been the interactions with Jesus as he appeared to the disciples in cases like John 20, where the disciples are afraid and doubting Jesus’s resurrection. To explore this, I included the famous Caravaggio’s “Incredulous Thomas” to discuss Jesus’s humanity. I was also interested to see paintings of the women at the tomb of Christ and how the artists would depict the women and their interaction with Christ and the angels. I selected two of these kinds of paintings and both come from the same area, Flanders, which is modern-day northern Belgium. As you look at these paintings, I encourage you to look at them closely and question: How is Jesus depicted interacting with his followers after his resurrection? What artistic elements do you see being used to tell these moments? What narrative elements do you see the artists using?

Velázquez, The Supper at Emmaus, 1622-23, oil painting, 123.2 cm X 132.7 cm, 

currently housed at the MET in Atlanta, Georgia

Here we can see how Velázquez depicts the two disciples discussing animatedly while seated at a table with Jesus. Note how he paints the nail marks on Jesus’s hands, the subtle halo, and Jesus’s far-off and upward gaze to tell us that this Jesus is newly resurrected. This would make Jesus appear very removed from the disciples and rather cold. But, we see how he is actually eating with the disciples with his scarred hands, showing us the fact that Christ is still human, that He truly resurrected. 

Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, oil and tempera on canvas, 1601, 141 X 196.2 cm, currently housed in the Sanssouci Picture Gallery in Potsdam, Germany

In this depiction of the Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio uses more dramatic lighting and more realistic textures to help his viewers imagine this dinner unfolding before us. Like in Velázquez’s painting, we can see two of the disciples discussing animatedly. What is new here is the introduction of another man looking at Jesus intently. In this one, it is interesting to note how Jesus’s face almost seems feminine with its symmetry and smoothness, unlike the others in the scene. We cannot see the nail marks on his hands, either. Here, it is apparent that Caravaggio wanted us to get into the emotion of the moment by showing the closest disciple shooting up in his chair as he looks at Jesus, who also seems to be in the conversation but with his eyes serenely closed.

Rembrandt, The Supper at Emmaus, oil on panel, 1629, 37.4 X 42.3 cm, 

currently housed at the Musee Jacquemart-Andre in Paris, France

    The first two Emmaus paintings had dramatic lighting that highlight the character’s faces, explosive body gestures to emulate the emotion, and similar environment. Here we are given a seemingly more “Bible-accurate” setting as Rembrandt takes a different approach here with a very minimally lit environment and we can barely make out Jesus in the foreground. It appears as if Rembrandt is almost hesitant to depict a fully resurrected Jesus. But, more importantly, note how he uses the lack of light to emphasize Jesus’s presence by making Jesus more than just a silhouette but dark enough that his body blends into the background of the dark room. This helps us have the same reaction of the disciples sitting across from Jesus, with his eyes bulging out in wonder as he focuses 100% of his attention on Jesus.

Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Thomas, oil on canvas, c. 1601-1602, 107 cm X 146 cm, 

currently housed at The National Gallery in London, England

Looking later on in Jesus’s interaction with his disciples post-resurrection, we see once again the relationship between Jesus’s humanity and divinity. Here, Caravaggio is depicting the moment in John 20 where Jesus put’s Thomas’s hand into his wound to show him that he was not a spirit. In its formal elements, this painting is similar to Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus by its use of dramatic warm lighting. Here we can see his skill as a painter as he uses a very small spectrum of colors to make this naturalistic painting. This very aspect is what makes us see how human Jesus is by the way Jesus’s wound is agape and the fold of skin bends with Thomas’s finger. 

Signed “DC” but artist unknown, Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene, oil on canvas, 

c. 17^th century, 73.7 X 55.9 cm, it was sold by Country Homes Antiquities Stirling 

based in Stirling, UK but then sold to unknown person

This painting is a very specific and relatively unknown depiction of Jesus talking to Mary Magdalene outside of his tomb (see John 20). It is interesting to note how Jesus is shown with a shovel to refer to Mary mistaking him for the gardener. At her feet is the jar of spices that she had brought and she is slowly sinking to her knees as she realizes with joy and amazement that Jesus was alive. Notice how, unlike the other painters discusses, this scene takes place outside and the artist, who is believed to be Flemish, gives us a glimpse of the countryside.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Holy Women at the Sepulcher, oil on panel, c.1611-14, 87.6 X 107.3 cm,

currently housed in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California

This is a very dynamic re-telling of the scene in Luke 24 where Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and a few other women came to the tomb and encountered the two angels telling them that Christ had risen. Now, even though this is not a specific interaction with Christ, I believe that this painting is helpful in the way that it depicts Jesus’s implicit interaction with his followers after his resurrection, the sort of winding up of the final scene of his ascension into Heaven. It is interesting to note how dark and barren the tomb is depicted and that all of the light is coming from the two angles who in Luke are described as looking “gleamed like lightning”. We can see the women’s faces illuminated by the two angels as they look on in pensive gazes as they look in wonder at what is occurring and the news that they are receiving.