John The Baptist Chapter 14 Essay

Imagine seeing the crucifiction of Christ. Seeing that happen would change everyone’s view of the world. Christ’s crucifiction affected many people, including His mother, Mary. Juan de Juanes, the artist, painted this scene realistically. This painting was made with oil paints on panel with long flowing strokes, which seemed to make it come to life. Juan de Juanes depicts many aspects in this painting such as historical significance, colors, and subject matter.

Giotto di Bondonne created “Lamentation” circa 1305. This piece depicts Jesus Christ removed from the cross as Mary the Virgin embraces Him. There are two figures in the foreground with their backs facing the audience. Dawning a new style of artwork creating a sense of depth. John the Baptist is seen flailing his arms backwards. Body gestures were stiff and stern in comparison to previous works. Bondonne is an early artist in “the revival of the visual arts” by painting a scene to suggest a story (Richards). For example, angels are captured flying in the distance watching the people care for the deceased Jesus Christ. They grieve in unison with the crowd down below. Bondonne successfully creates a feeling of three dimensions by including a cluster of people on the far left tucked away in the corner. The mass of people gathered around to offer praise for His ultimate sacrifice.

The ominous figure in the centre of the foreground - Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on the cross, in Luca di Tommè’s ‘The Crucifixion’, primarily catches the eye. The symmetrical arrangement of lamenting figures around the cross, as well as the gilded background, highlight him as the focal point of this artwork.

David M. Stone has made some great points in his article, “Signature Killer: Caravaggio and the Poetics of Blood.” Stone set out to explain his ideas about Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio’s honorary knighthood and the social standing it gave him, and what it meant for Caravaggio to sign his name in The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, in the blood of St. John the Baptist himself. Stone gave great insight into the world of Caravaggio’s life and what he could have been implying through the act of signing in blood.

John as we know today was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was also the brother of James, who was also an apostle. John was the son of Zeebee and of Salome. His father was a fisherman while living in Bethsaida in Galilee on the border of the lake Gennesareth. John's mother was one of many women who gave to the maintenance of Jesus Christ. John's parents were very good people, they loved God and his son. It is said that john and his brother James were fishing when Jesus came and chose them. They were soon known as the fishers of men. The John of whom I am talking about is John the Evangelist.

Prior to Raphael’s The Alba Madonna, there had been numerous paintings of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. What was unique about this one was the fact that a very young John the Baptist was included. In his painting, Raphael has John the Baptist holding a cross and the Baby Jesus grasping it. All three subjects in the painting are gazing at the cross. Church teachings state that Jesus had an understanding of his fate at a very young age. This painting signifies that understanding. Baby Jesus is accepting his future fate of suffering and dying on the cross. His mother Mary and cousin John are also accepting of his fate. Raphael has captured

In this painting, he is being accused by the woman to the soldier. Caravaggio portrays the story of the Denial of St. Peter, as told in all four Gospels (Matthew, John, Luke, Mark) of the Bible. When Jesus was arrested, he prophesied that Peter, his disciple would denounce his name

The Deposition from the Cross (Entombment of Christ) by Jacopo Pontormo was completed in 1528 and originally resided in the Florence Charterhouse as the main altarpiece. With it’s distinct iconography, the work was intended to show the public the raw suffering of Christ after his sacrifice and how those around him felt at the time of his death. It holds an uplifting and even hopeful tone with it’s “sour” color palette, a stable for the Mannerist movement.

John’s gospel reveals many things about the Son, the Father, and the church. In chapter 17 of his gospel, it directly portrays the similarity of the son to the father and how the son is one with the father. John’s gospel states that the son is one with the father and the father is one with the son. This shows the close relationship between the two, and there is not much room for contradictory statements on whether or not the father sent the son to earth. Also, Jesus, the son, reveals many things about the church and its unity.

Additionally, Caravaggio transports this canvas to life with bright colors; bold contrasts of reds, golds and greens and many surfaces of velvets and soft fur. He also contrasts gestures and expressions and used the contrast principle to differentiate the bright from the dark, which creates interest in the characters portrayed. He intends to tell us that the atmospheric perspective used in this painting is to create depth, like the window behind the individuals. Additionally, the painting is mostly organic forms, but the window can be classified as an organic form. This painting, along with two others of St. Matthew by Caravaggio, was specially made for the Contarelli chapel situated in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome (Biography.com Editors).

Caravaggio’s The Sacrifice of Isaac is a classic work of art that displays many different types of fundamentals of art, including but not limited to, directional line, contrast, emphasis, and focal point, which I will be highlighting. Upon reflection of this work, I feel strong emotions of disturbance, sadness, and despair. It is an image of the story in the Old Testament when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham showed God his obedience, and God spared Isaac’s life. This work’s emotional touch is paired with excellent examples of how the fundamentals of art are used to reach into people’s hearts and souls.

The New Testament is characterized by the existence of imperative Biblical figures, with the likes of Jesus Christ, the Apostles, among many others. Peter was among Jesus’ first disciples. From his turning point, as manifested in the book of John 21, to his progress as a dedicated leader as manifested in Acts, to his final emergence as a co-elder as manifested in the Epistles of 1st and 2nd Peter, Peter exhibited traits of a transformational and charismatic biblical figure (Neil & William 409).

Carlo Crivelli, in his piece Pietà, depicts a highly emotional scene in which Mary, Mary Magdalene, and John the Baptist mourn the death of Christ, who has just been removed from the cross after his crucifixion. The moment Crivelli captured in this painting seems to be the first moments that Christ has been returned to his loved ones. There is movement and intense emotion in this moment. Mary has thrown herself around Christ’s body and pulls him towards her. Mary Magdalene holds Christ’s left arm and seems to be bringing it towards his body as if still in the midst of receiving him from the foreground into the mid-ground where the mourners are.

El Greco’s Lamentation of Christ is “a translation in paint of Michelangelo's late sculptured group of the Pietà in Florence Cathedral, at the time in Rome. The pattern and the feeling are the same. The figures of the Dead Christ, His Mother, Saint Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea make one compact group. Michelangelo achieved this by his new treatment of form; El Greco by paint, by employing broader, more continuous passages of color. The more vivid colors of Rome combine with the richer palette of Venice to convey the intensity of expression demanded by the subject. The horizontal composition of Venice, more suited to a narrative type of subject than to the single image, is given up and is only very rarely found appropriate in Spain. Michelangelo's Pietà group was not the only source on which El Greco drew: the arrangement of Christ's legs and his outspread arms, no less than the idea of viewing one of the two bearers of his body from the side and the other from behind, derive from Michelangelo's drawing for Vittoria Colonna, in which, as in El Greco's painting, the Virgin is placed behind and above Christ.” (Web Gallery of

This essay will show contrasts in views on the Gospel of John regarding authorship,dates, and the relationship between John's Gospel and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Some comparison of thought, concerning composition and life setting, will also be presented.