Visual Analysis: Christ Healing at the Pool of Bethesda by Carl Bloch
The influence of Art is evident through many different contemporary means that alludes to any one time-period or era. The relevancy of such a depiction is represented through the aspect or topic of religion. In the Christian religion, whether directly or indirectly many Christian artist have spread faith over generations, drawing inspirations of the faith and incorporating them into their pieces. Carl Bloch a Danish painter illustrates the Christ’s life through paintings, as his work was displayed Frederiksberg Castle Church in current day Denmark. The paintings showed how Christ taught and healed many people. Some of his paintings are alter pieces for the church. The
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This reflects their intentions of following Christ. They are not following to help him, but find fault with him. Many of the people at the pool of Bethesda are waiting for the disturbance of the water so that they may be healed of their illnesses by it miraculous powers. In the painting, Bloch’s use of color depicts the water as dirty implying that it may not have miraculous powers that the people believe it does. The elderly man had not been able to bathe in these waters and be healed from his disease for thirty-eight years. When Christ heals this man, he does not help him to the water; he tells him to rise and walk and he is healed. Christ is the one that the people should believe in to be healed. This shows that Christ being a perfect being wants to help those in need and he is the one that has the power to perform miracles. Bloch effectively uses body position in the painting Christ Healing at the Pool of Bethesda to add to the theme of Christ being there to help people.
In the painting Christ’s position shows his willingness and ability to heal the elderly man. His left hand is lifted the shelter of cloth the man is under, literally shows that Christ can lift the sick and heal them or can lift the burdens which befall them. Christ’s right-hand gesture is inviting and shows his love and willingness to help toward the elderly man. The elderly man’s hands are starting to reach up towards Christ, trusting and accepting his help.
Overall, it seems like there are many people in society now living in our present life. Their society is developing and improving a little bit because of people at the bottom with shackled hands whom are under the influence of the three figures who have a bigger dream and look at higher world. Each of them in the painting has an object on their hands. These seem to be important clues to interpret this painting. One is holding a book, second is holding a jar or flask and third one is holding handwriting, directing or measuring tools of an architect with compass. And there is a globe
The two figures of the Archangel and Virgin Mary are close together and it shows a scene of almost touching fingers while they try to reach for one another but seems like they would never join hands. The male figure of the archangel would carry a long feather like pen and it would bow down to the Virgin marry and tries to respectable speak to her. On the other hand, the Virgin Mary seems to be in authority because she is standing up and looking down at the Archangel. This creates tension in the painting while we question the social distinction between the two. Looking closely at the Virgin Mary, her eyes would be close. It is almost like she is resisting the contact from the Archangel and tried to stay away from him. Looking on the left, the Archangel have white wings and there is green-yellowish light that surrounds him and the red clothing on him show that he is there for good news. But the resistance from the Virgin Mary seem like she is unaware of what is happening and is unable to accept the annunciation from the angel.
As the viewer’s gaze lingers on this central image, his/her eyes reluctantly and painfully follow the path of the crimson red blood that spurts out of Christ’s body and so naturally trickles down his arms into a pool at the base of the cross. The red bole that seeps through the cracked gold background seems to intensify this action. The pale grayish hue of Christ’s tortured skin morbidly conveys his lifelessness.
On September 19, 2015 I visited the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin, where I observed The Raising of Lazarus by Joachim Wtewael in the European Old Masters gallery. The piece recreates the biblical narrative of Lazarus’ resurrection and demonstrates the exorbitant style of Mannerism popular during the 16th century. Wtewael establishes the significance of the Christ with his application of form through the use of unrealistic contortions of the people, the lines following the exaggerated limbs of the congregation, and the abundant use of the color red on almost every article of clothing.
The halo looks to have been carved into the wood and then painted with a little bit of sun gold to heighten its appearance. The lesser portion of the painting has a dark brown color which might have being painted or made from a different type of wood. The base on which the painting stands is painted in dark brown and looks very firm. On the left and right of the arch there are blue colors meant to depict the skies filled with yellow stars. This depiction of the skies is said to be where God the Father resides. In the painting, there are three life like images that are clearly visible. The first one as illustrated in order of importance is God the Father who sits on his thrown that of a chair made from gold. His hair is long down to his shoulders; and he his fully garbed in a mixture of red, white and black being the dominant color. His garments are lined with gold colors and matches his long beard. God the Father hands are partially extended in front of him holding up a wooden cross which displays God the Son.
painting. This is a painting in which Jesus is the center of the movement in the work everything
His frustration is visible in the expression on his face. He appears tired of her bothering him about it, hence the hand. The child is showing a lot of white which can represent faith, I think the artist did this to say that the baby is giving the family faith because they are trying to provide for their child and in order to do that they need to be able to put food on the table which won’t just only help the baby but them as a whole. The woman may also symbolize strength that’s why the artist made her dress and lipstick red; she’s fiery. She may help the husband maintain his sanity no matter how many problems they are going through as a family.
The very first detail that stands out to me is the expression on the face of Jeremiah. This face is a very distinct one of sadness and almost distaste for his current life and he appears to be bored, which is why he is resting his head on his hand. Also his eyes seem to be preoccupied looking at something off of the view of the painting which could be inferred as him longing for something that he is not able to have, hence why it is not in the frame of the painting.
At first I honestly believed this man was insane for setting himself on fire and dousing himself with water. This is why I decided to research him a little more and discovered that as a child he fell to the bottom of a lake in which he saw a whole new world. Later in life he stumbled upon many more life changing experiences with water which made him use it in many of his works. After all my research I came to a conclusion that the meaning of these stills was metamorphosis. Whether it’d be setting himself on fire or dousing himself with water after it all he came out of it a new man. Most importantly the "Christ-like" pose to me signifies him awakening and breaking out of his
The eye is first directed towards Jesus, who is the center of attention in the painting. His pale body is limp, and trickles of blood run down his face and body. There are holes in his hands and feet, and gashes in his stomach, which show the complete suffering that Jesus went through. The painting also feels a bit crowded with all the people. The artist may have done this to draw more attention to Jesus in the center. Van der Weyden superbly made Jesus’ body seem lifeless, and the crowded people look grieved. This causes the viewer to feel a pang and it stirs their heart to love God, which is called an
Large, dominating, and firmly grasping the wooden pew, the hands are very important. The central character's hands are shaded much darker than the rest of his body and they look to be wrinkled and cracked. The shading technique used on the hands suggest that this individual is a working class man. This idea is backed up by the fact that the man is wearing a shirt with an actual blue collar. In and of themselves blue collar shirts are not that special or important, but working class men are often characterized as blue collar workers and in the picture the man is wearing a blue collar. Also, the man is wearing a tattered jacket that is shaded. This implies that he has had the coat for a while and has worked long and hard hours in this coat, further supporting the idea that this man in the painting is a working class man. Now, the image of a working class man alone is not that incredible, as many people can identify as belonging to the working class or being a blue collar worker themselves. It is not the fact that the man is working class that makes this image so iconic, but it is who he is
The two main characters in the painting display elegant mannered poses and all the figures appear arranged in rather unnatural poses. There is a small scene at the foot of the Saint Catherine and Christ figures. This is thought to be the Christ child with the Virgin Mary and grandmother, Saint Anne. Below these two scenes are three smaller bordered scenes. The central one depicts two enemies reconciled by an archangel and the outer ones show Saints Michael and Margaret fighting demons. All these images show the triumph of good over evil, with the middle characters shedding their weapons and embracing. All these small pictures support that the painting was commissioned by Arigoi di Nero Arighetti to celebrate the end of a feud.
Vittore Carpaccio’s symmetrical input truly served it’s purpose. Focusing on the center third of the painting, there’s a mere perfect symmetrical contrast of life and death top to bottom. Most impacting is the symmetrical division of the malnourished and tortured body of Jesus Christ, The left side of his body is in a lively sitting posture on the throne. While his right side is the embodiment of death, his punctured ribs and dangling arm. From the ground up, Carpaccio illustrates the contrast of life and death with minimal details in the painting. The supporting stones of the throne, directly below the arm rests, are divided by breakage, the left stone is cracked and falling apart, while the opposing stone appears to be intact. Vittore Carpaccio managed to capture the cycle of life with many elements one wouldn’t think of comparing life and death with. The top left portion of the throne is a half broken, followed by Jesus’s deadly posture to the falling apart ground stone of the throne, Death is captured in a very recognizable minimalistic form.
When I see the painting the shape is symmetric in the sense that there are the same amount of people on both sides of Jesus. The genre of this painting is Christian art.There are also four panels on both sides of the walls. In my opinion, the target audience that this painting was intended for are those who are believers of Christ. I feel this way because I think that this painting portrays the event that is talked about in the bible in the scripture Matthew 26, verse 21 where Jesus says “…"Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.". He then continues in verse 23 saying, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me”. In the painting, you can clearly see the man two seats away from his right reaching for the bowl at the same time as Christ. This event lead to the Holy Eucharist, also known as communion or the Lord’s Supper where Christ takes the bread which was to symbolize his body and wine which was to symbolize his
It is a scene which is shown after Jesus was crucified, where his body has been removed from the cross and his friends and family mourn over his body. Many artists have focused this scene by just painting four people: the body of Christ, His mother, Saint Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea.