Pasion En Venice

Diversity within Unity under the Man of Sorrows

Upon entering the exhibit room through heavy glass doors, two brightly written words, “In Venice,” illuminate into my eyes. Below, hangs a smallframe of Madonna and Child and the Man of Sorrows by Domenico Morrone. The Christ wasn’t strange but not necessarily familiar either. He was upfront and half-length, with his eyes closed and arms gentlycrossed over his stomach. The bloodstains and holes on his body indicated that it was his image after crucifixion, and his closed eyes and hands pose seem to signify before His resurrection. Turningmy head left, I read the bold letters that say “Passion” in bloody red. Then I realized this “Passion” with capital P involves suffering and tears of humanity, and the dim and gloomy lighting of theroom was explained. The neutral grey walls silenced the room.
Muffling my steps, I turned around the corner to get a closer look of the ancient Bible written in Italian, where mentions “Man ofSorrows” in opened pages of Isaiah 53:3. The image of Christ as Man of Sorrows is depicted by a number of famous artists in various media from sculpture to illuminated manuscripts. Contrary to such vibranttitle of the exhibit, however, the Christ represented in the displayed art works appears debilitated and lifeless, at least the first quarter of the exhibition does. The diagonally crossed beams of softscattered lights created a deep shadow under Jacobello del Buonomo’s The Dead Christ, adding the depth to the tomb from where the Christ is emerging.
Until late 14th century, the Christ illustratedas a Man of Sorrows is very elegant and peaceful with his body positioned strictly upright and front and his head slight tilted to the left. Rising directly from his tomb, he looks more deadly andless likely to resurrect within a few days. Starting from the late Renaissance era (moving to a main horizontal wall of the room), however, when the individual genius and artistic personality were...