ART AND DEVOTION
A Meditation on the Passion of Christ Caroline Farey on a painting by Guido da Siena from the 1270s
T
he very wood of the cross is speaking in the following quotation from the Old English poem, The Dream of the Rood (‘rood’ meaning ‘cross’): ‘Then I saw mankind’s Lord Hasten with great zeal, as though he wanted to climb upon me.’ Written in the 10th century, this poem is one of the earliest instances of the theme of Christ climbing or ‘ascending’ the cross, a theme that can be found in several early medieval devotional texts and images and from several parts of Europe through to the 15th century. The Dream of the Rood is part of a manuscript in Old English found in the library of the cathedral of Vercelli in North-West Italy, which is therefore called the Codex Vercellensis, or Vercelli book (codex). One commentator proposes that the book may have been taken to Italy by one of the numerous Anglo-Saxon pilgrims on the way to Rome. This theme of Christ climbing the cross – seen in our painting - is obviously not scriptural yet it portrays profound divine truth, the truth of the Son of God’s irrepressible desire to save us. Another manuscript, from the fifteenth century, imagines the same scene in this way: …the clamouring crowd leads Christ to the place of Calvary, and then, with all of them watching there, He is stripped of His garments… O what great sorrow it was to you, most Holy Mother, when you beheld that sight. Then, when the cross had been prepared, they cry: "Ascend, Jesus, ascend." O how freely He ascends, with what great love for us He bore everything, with what patience, what gentleness! . . .
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‘The ladder has seven rungs which have, in other paintings of this kind, been clearly meant to indicate the ladder of virtue’ Thus, entirely nude, He is raised and extended on the cross. But his most loving mother, full of anguish, placed her veil, which had been on her head, around Him, and covered His shame… (Pseudo-Bede, De Meditationes Passione Christi ) You will notice that the artist has deliberately made the loincloth around Jesus the same colour as the dress of his Blessed Mother (though maybe not her actual veil here) and her cloak of dark blue, as well as her arm, also wraps around her son. These all indicate the intense unity of mission and purpose of mother and son in these final moments of Jesus’ earthly life. St John Henry Cardinal Newman also imagines Christ climbing a ladder, but this time tentatively, on to the cross:
Yes, they set up the Cross on high, and they placed a ladder against it, and, having stripped Him of His garments, made Him mount. With His hands feebly grasping its sides and cross-woods, and His feet slowly, uncertainly, with much effort, with many slips, mounting up, … When He reached the projection where His sacred feet were to be, He turned round with sweet modesty and gentleness towards the fierce rabble, stretching out His arms, as if He would embrace them. Then He lovingly placed the backs of His hands close against the transverse beam, waiting for the executioners to come with their sharp nails and heavy hammers to dig into the palms of His hands, and to fasten them securely to the wood. (Taken from www.newmanreader.org, meditations on the stations of the cross, 11th station).
SPRING 2022
