Image of love

The icon of the crucifixion is always also an icon of resurrection. For example, in the icon shown (which I completed a few months ago) Jesus is on the cross, but he is also risen: he has no traces of his passion, apart from a few drops of blood that come out of the nails of his hands, feet and side. . The very position of his body suggests the graceful posture of a standing man who spreads his arms fully.

The closed eyes and the bowed head suggest more a quiet rest than a death by suffocation. Not to deny his sufferings: the dismay and tears of those present (from the left Mary of Magdala, Mary the Mother of Jesus, the apostle John and the centurion) and of the angels themselves, indicate that real suffering and death , atrocious and unheard of there were truly and under the eyes of all.

But to affirm that Jesus had a purpose in suffering all that he chose to suffer: to take upon himself the consequences of man's wickedness and violence, of his blind selfishness, to save him, to reopen the ways of heaven to those who had closed with so much ingratitude, and show the infinite love that only God can have.

Chiara Dal Corso
NP may 2020