LIB'S LABYRINTH: Paintings White Crucifixion

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Paintings White Crucifixion

MARC CHAGALL FOUND SUPPORTERS IN CHICAGO AND CONTINUED TO BE IMPRESSED BY THE CITY. The 1938 oil-on-canvas painting, roughly 5 feet by 4.5 feet, was purchased by Art Institute of Chicago in 1946 from Chagall's daughter. On September 15, the curators and staff of Art Institute extra carefully packed up and shipped the "White Crucifixion" destined to Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, where it will be on loan until January 24, 2016.

Pope Francis in his 2010 biography labeled "White Crucifixion" his favorite of all paintings. Really? How about Da Vinci's Las Supper? Or The Wedding at Cana? Maybe, his favorite "modern" painting? On November 10, the Art Institute staff is arranging for him to view it while he's in Florence for a visit to the Catholic community. For the day, "White Crucifixion" will be moved to the Baptistery of St. John, one of the city's religious buildings and home to Lorenzo Ghiberti's famous "Gates of Paradise."

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WHITE CRUCIFIXION THE SUBJECT OF JESUS' CRUCIFIXION HAD LONG HELD A FASCINATION FOR MARC CHAGALL.

White Crucifixion can be seen at the Art Institute of Chicago

The son of Lithuanian Jewish parents he frequently painted the subject. Chagall painted White Crucifixion in 1938, on the eve of World War II. He portrays Jesus as a practicing Jew who wears a prayer shawl as he dies on the cross. One art critic noted that Jesus appears as a Jewish martyr - his crucifixion occurs in the midst of the burning of the synagogues and other violence against the Jewish people. In the corners of the painting are a Lithuanian flag on one side and Communist flags on the other. He later added a swastika armband on one soldier, and placed a placard reading "Ich bin Jude" (I am a Jew) on another man. Marc Chagall died on March 28, 1985.