Ecce homo

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This article is about the biblical phrase and the subject in art. For other uses, see Ecce homo (disambiguation).
Ecce Homo, Caravaggio, 1605

Ecce homo (

Douay-Rheims Bible and the King James Version, as "behold the man".[a] The scene has been widely depicted in Christian art
.

Version by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch
, 1490s

A scene of the ecce homo is a standard component of cycles illustrating the Passion and life of Christ in art. It follows the stories of the Flagellation of Christ, the crowning with thorns and the mocking of Jesus, the last two often being combined:[b] The usual depiction shows Pilate and Jesus, a mocking crowd which may be rather large, and parts of the city of Jerusalem.

But, from the 15th century in the West, and much earlier in the art of the Eastern church,

instruments of the Passion are present, it may be called an Arma Christi. If Christ is sitting down (usually supporting himself with his hand on his thigh), it may be referred to it as Christ at rest or Pensive Christ
. It is not always possible to distinguish these subjects.

Eastern Christianity

Narrative scenes of the biblical moment are almost never shown in Eastern art, but icons of the single figure of the tortured Christ go back over a millennium, and have sometimes been called Ecce homo images by later sources. The first depictions of the ecce homo scene in the arts appear in the 9th and 10th centuries in the Syrian-Byzantine culture of the Antiochian Greek Christians.[g]

New Testament Greek: "ἰδοὺ ὁ νυμφίος", romanized: "idoù ho nymphíos", by which Jesus Christ reveals himself, in his Parable of the Ten Virgins according to the Gospel of Matthew,[a] as the bearer of the most high joy.[j]

Ecce Homo, Andrea Mantegna
, 1500

The icon presents the bridegroom as a suffering

his crucifixion.[b][i]

The daily

romanized: idoú ho nymphíos érchetai en tõ méso tẽs nuktós).[f][l]

A Passion Play, presented in Moscow (27 March 2007) and in Rome (29 March 2007), recalls the words, with which "in Holy Scriptures Christ describes Himself as a bridegroom":[m]

The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a spear.
We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ.
We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ.
We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ.
Show us also Thy glorious Resurrection.

— Hilarion Alfeyev, The Passion according to St. Matthew[18]

Western Christianity

Ecce Homo by Titian, between c. 1570 and c. 1576

Depictions of

Mocking of Christ,[b] which precede the actual ecce homo scene in the Bible. The independent image only developed around 1400, probably in Burgundy, but then rapidly became extremely popular, especially in Northern Europe.[19]

Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa Diptych, c. 1491–1520. Aelbrecht Bouts

The motif found increasing currency as the

antisemitic
caricatures. Equally, this style of art has been read as a kind of simplistic externalisation of the inner hatred of the angry crowd towards Jesus, not necessarily implying any racial judgment.

The motif of the lone figure of a suffering Christ who seems to be staring directly at the observer, enabling him/her to personally identify with the events of the Passion, arose in the late Middle Ages. At the same time similar motifs of the Man of Sorrow and Christ at rest increased in importance. The subject was used repeatedly in later so-called old master prints (e.g. by Jacques Callot and Rembrandt), in the paintings of the Renaissance and the Baroque, as well as in Baroque sculptures.

Ecce Homo during the 1470s.[20]
He returned to the subject in 1490 to paint in a characteristically Netherlandish style, with deep perspective and a surreal ghostly image of praying monks in the lower left-hand corner.

In 1498, Albrecht Dürer depicted the suffering of Christ in the ecce homo of his Great Passion in unusually close relation with his self-portrait, leading to a reinterpretation of the motif as a metaphor for the suffering of the artist. James Ensor used the ecce homo motif in his ironic painting Christ and the Critics (1891), in which he portrayed himself as Christ.

Antonio Ciseri's 1871 Ecce Homo portrayal presents a semi-photographic view of a balcony seen from behind the central figures of a scourged Christ and Pilate (whose face is not visible). The crowd forms a distant mass, almost without individuality, and much of the detailed focus is on the normally secondary figures of Pilate's aides, guards, secretary and wife.

Ecce Homo by Mihály Munkácsy, 1896

One of the more famous modern versions of the ecce homo motif was that by the Polish artist

Our God's Brother [pl], a play about Chmielowski, written between 1944 and 1950, when the future Pontiff and later himself a saint was a young priest. Chmielowski's Ecce Homo [pl] (146 cm x 96.5 cm, unsigned, painted between 1879 and 1881), was significant in Chmielowski's life, as it is in Act 1 of Wojtyła's play. Pope John Paul II is said to have kept a copy of this painting in his apartment at the Vatican.[21] The original can be viewed in the Ecce Homo Sanctuary of the Albertine Sisters in Kraków.[22] It was painted at a time when the painter was going through an inner struggle, trying to decide whether to remain an artist, or to give up painting to pursue the calling to minister to the poor.[23]

Especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, the meaning of ecce homo motif has been extended to the portrayal of suffering and the degradation of humans through violence and war. Notable 20th-century depictions are

Holocaust of World War II, Otto Dix
portrayed himself, in Ecce Homo with self-likeness behind barbed wire (1948), as the suffering Christ in a concentration camp.

Artworks

These are images of the narrative type, with other figures, rather than the devotional Man of Sorrows type.

Gallery

Publications

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Хальфан 2009; Rotem 2018.
  2. ^ Dreher 2017, p. 187.
  3. ^ Alfeyev 1995.
  4. ^ "Holy Week: An Explanation". Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  5. ^ Basil Essey 2008.
  6. Facebook
  7. ^ Christus der Bräutigam 2018; Christus der Bräutigam 2018b; Gemeinde Wien 2019.
  8. ^ Slobodskoy 1967, "Short Prayers: Another Prayer to the Lord Jesus" - Archived 7 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine; Слободской 1967, "Kratkiye molitvy: Yeshche odna molitva Gospodu Iisusu - Краткие молитвы: Еще одна молитва Господу Иисусу" -Archived 27 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ^ The Way Home 2008; Дорога домой 2008.
  10. ^ John El Massih 2017; Christ the Bridegroom Monastery 2009.
  11. ^ ها هو ذا الختن on YouTube
  12. JPEG image). Orthodox Church in America. Archived
    from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  13. ^ Alexandre (Semenoff-Tian-Chansky) 1984.
  14. ^ Slobodskoy 1967, "The Order of Divine Services: The Daily Cycle of Divine Services". Archived 8 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine; Слободской 1967, "O poryadke tserkovnykh Bogosluzheniy: Sutochnyy krug Bogosluzheniy" О порядке церковных Богослужений: Суточный круг Богослужений. Archived 7 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine.[e]
  15. ^ Slobodskoy 1967, "The Sundays of Lent: Passion Week". Archived 8 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine; Слободской 1967, "Nedeli Velikogo Posta: Strastnaya sedmitsa" Недели Великого Поста: Страстная седмица. Archived 6 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine.[e]
  16. ^ Russian chant 2010.
  17. ^ Bases of the Social Concept 2000.
  18. ^ Alfeyev 2007.
  19. ^ Schiller 1972, pp. 74–75, figs. 236, 240, 256–273.
  20. ^ Krén & Marx.
  21. ^ Wójtowicz 2011.
  22. ^ Media related to File:Church of Saint Albert Chmielowski (Ecce Homo Sanctuary) in Cracow, Poland.jpg at Wikimedia Commons.
  23. ^ Wyczółkowski 1880.
  24. ^ Grosz 2011.
  25. ^ Christ the Bridegroom Monastery 2009.
  26. ^ Wicks 2017.

Notes

  1. ^
    NVUL), lit. 'behold the bridegroom'.[1]
  2. ^
    NA28), illudebant ei (NVUL), lit. 'they mocked him' […]. — "The reed is a Christian symbol of humility […]. After whipping Christ and crowning him with thorns, the Roman soldiers gave Christ a reed as pathetic scepter for a mock ruler. In Christian iconography, the reed is a sign of Jesus's willingness to suffer humiliation to fulfill the will of his Father. […] [T]he humility is the absolute requirement for advancement in the spiritual life."[2]
  3. Acts 11:26
    )'"
  4. ^ "At the first service of Palm Sunday evening, the priest carries the icon of Christ the Bridegroom in procession, and we sing the 'Hymn of the Bridegroom'. We behold Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church, bearing the marks of His suffering, yet preparing a marriage Feast for us in God's Kingdom. […] The Parable of the Ten Virgins is read on Holy Tuesday. […] The theme of the day is reinforced by the expostelarion hymn we sing:"[4][5]

    I behold Thy bridal chamber
    richly adorned,
    O my Savior;
    but I have no wedding garment
    to worthily enter.
    Make radiant
    the garment of my soul,
    O Giver of Light,
    and save me.
  5. ^
    Internet edition
    at Dorogadomoj.com.
  6. ^ a b "Realizing our sinfulness and not relying on the power of our own prayers, in this prayer we ask […] the Mother of God, Who has special grace to save us sinners by Her intercession for us before Her Son, to pray for us sinners before our Saviour." (Russian: "Сознавая свою греховность и не надеясь на силу молитв своих, мы в этой молитве просим помолиться о нас грешных, пред Спасителем нашим, […] Божию Матерь, имеющую особенную благодать спасать нас грешных Своим заступничеством за нас перед Сыном Своим.")[8].[e][9]
  7. Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Syria is not to be confused with Syriac Christianity: "The Syrian Church has never had its own tradition of icon-painting. […] As to the non-Chalcedonian Orient, in particular the Church of Syria, icons did not find much acceptance there, and the churches were adorned with ornaments rather than icons."[3]

    Antiochian representatives:    [c]
    Cf. Isaiah 6:3: "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory", Revelation 4:8: "Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come", Trisagion, and Jesus Prayer.
  8. ^ Even if the icon inscription is Behold the Man.[12]
  9. ^ a b c "The icon of Christ the Bridegroom portrays the selfless love for Christ's Bride, the Church (Isaiah 54). He is dressed in royal colors as the betrothed King, complying with Sacred Scripture's account of His mockery by the Roman guards before His crucifixion. The crown is a symbol of His marriage to the Church; the rope, a symbol of bondage to sin, death and corruption which Jesus untied by His death on the Cross; the reed, a symbol of His humility."[25]
  10. ^ Russian: "Христос открывает Себя Носителем высшей радости", romanized: Khristos otkryvayet Sebya Nositelem vysshey radosti, lit. 'Christ reveals Himself as the Bearer of the highest joy'.[13]
  11. Church Slavonic: "'жених в полунощи'", romanized: zhenikh v polunoshchi, lit. 'the bridegroom at midnight'.[14]
  12. Church Slavonic: "'Се Жених грядет в полунощи'", romanized: Se Zhenikh gryadet v polunoshchi, lit. 'Behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight'.[15] "During Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, we celebrate Bridegroom Matins. We sing: 'Behold, the Bridegroom is coming …'".[16]
  13. ^ Matthew 9:15; 25:1–13; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34–35, 12:35–36. "[T]he Church is presented as His wife and bride": John 2:9–10, 3:29, Ephesians 5:24–27; Revelation 21:9.[17]
  14. romanized: IesoũS CHristóS ho nymphíos, lit. 'Jesus Christ the bridegroom'. — An icon, on the apex of the Rock of Calvary inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, under the Greek Orthodox altar of the crucifixion (12th Station of the Via Dolorosa).[1]
  15. ^ "[F]inal autobiographical statement" by Friedrich Nietzsche. "He begins this fateful intellectual autobiography—he was to lose his mind little more than a month later—with three eyebrow-raising sections entitled, 'Why I Am So Wise', 'Why I Am So Clever', and 'Why I Write Such Good Books'."[26]
  16. theme tune of the TV sitcom Mr. Bean
    .
  17. ^ Macaronic Latin / Ecce Mono (Spanish for 'Behold the monkey'). Exemplary of an accidental damage of art.

Further reading

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