The Crucifixion, the Mourning, 1460, 2003

 

From a distance, the painting screams.

As you approach it, you see that it is all a stillness of silent witness, grief and  submission against a backdrop of anguished red.  

 

 

 

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An approach through the Cloisters at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

These cloisters have elements from the Abbey of Saint-Denis-des Fontaines in the (historical) French province of Roussillon. 1270-’80. Some modern additions.  Marble.

 

 

 

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You notice that the blue of the Virgin’s robe is an etiolated blue.

And that the triangle, often a constituent element of Renaissance paintings, is here reversed. 

The apex, a point directly below Jesus’ feet, is pointing downwards into the earth. 

Where Jesus will soon be.  Until Sunday at the first hour.

 

 

 

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The Crucifixion, with The Virgin and St. John the Evangelist Mourning, 1460, oil on panels.  Rogier van der  Weyden, 1399/1400 – 1464, Flemish.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

 

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Crucifixion, 2003, plaster, plywood, fabric and enamel paint. 

Rachel Feinstein, American born 1971. Private collection on loan to the Jewish Museum, NY in 2020