List Members,
I'm searching for ideas/reasons about why an artist would deliberately
choose to obscure Christ's face. The only thing that comes to my mind is
an analogy to the facelessness of God. I'm spending some time with
Albrecht Durer's Small Woodcut Passion, and Christ's face is often
partially or totally obscured either by being turned away, covered by hair,
hidden by an arm, or simply buried in deep shadows. Nothing like this
occurs in Durer's other Passion cycles, or in any of his other images of
Christ, or even in earlier or contemporary Passion cycles. The only
similarity that I'm familiar with is Master Francke's Englandfahrer
Altarpiece. Anyway, the facelessness of God analogy doesn't seem (to me
anyway) to make much sense in this context, so I'm very interested in any
thoughts or references.
Thanks,
Courtney
Courtney Ann Hanson
University of Oregon
[log in to unmask]
"Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."
-- Mary Schmich
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