Many years ago I picked up a secondhand book in the Christian Aid booksale called The Faces of Jesus by Frederick Buechner. It is an American book and full of wonderful pictures and paintings. I think it was the first time that I saw indigenous pictures of Jesus: Jesus as a Chinese man with slanting eyes and a wispy moustache; Jesus as a noble African with wide nose and sorrowful eyes. And I became quite fascinated by images of Christ in art.
This week I came across this picture of the Baptism of Christ by Pheoris West, a North American artist, in Imaging the Word Vol 1.
I rather like the fact that he is looking in different directions. In fact, it reminds me of a Dutch painting called Trinitarian Christ which also shows Jesus’ face as three sides.
The Baptism painting shows a young man full of life and vitality. There is light and dark. There is movement of the water and the sky.
I could look at it for hours.
I think the arm down the right side and along the bottom is John the Baptist’s.
What do you think?
Thank you for your post RevRuth. You may be interested to know that Frederick Buechner now has a website where you can see all of his other wonderful books: http://www.frederickbuechner.com.
Absolutely wonderful. Did you ever come across the CMS project which had representations of Christ from all around the world, with a study guide? Blowed if I can remember what it’s called :( but it’s very thought-provoking.
Yes, I have it and it is great. Use it often in groups.