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Sacred Paintings

  • Home
  • New Page
  • Writings on the Theology of Art by James Patrick Reid
    • Fitly Framed Together: Art, Sports, and the Building Up of the Body of Christ
    • Matisse and Russian Icons
    • A Few Words on Traditional and Modern Art in the Light of Metaphysics
    • The Art of the Beautiful Lecture Series in New York
    • The Metaphysics of Art (Article in "The Catholic Thing")
    • Invisible Things Clearly Seen
    • Art and the Transfiguration of the World
  • Paintings by James Patrick Reid
  • The Iconography of The Baptism of Christ
  • The iconography in the "Annunciation"
  • The iconography in "Nazareth"
  • Byzantine Icons by the hand of James Patrick Reid
  • About James Patrick Reid
  • Blog -- Meditations on Sacred Masterworks
  • Contact
Tintoretto, Washing of Feet, Prado.jpg

Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles, painted by Tintoretto

March 22, 2017

This vast painting by Tintoretto depicts the Lord washing the feet of his Apostles at the Last Supper. At first sight there appears a peculiarity: A dog occupies the center foreground, while Christ and Saint Peter are way over on the right. But try an experiment: Move so that your head is not in front of your computer but to the right of it, and then from that position look at the image obliquely.

As if by magic, the perspective has shifted. Now Christ and Peter are closest to us, and the central perspective of the painting leads from them to the Supper table and the Apostles who are learning to imitate Christ, and thence to the city (the place of mission), in this case Venice.

The effect is of course stronger in the real painting, because the figures are life size. The painting originally hung on the south wall of the 'choir' of a church, i.e., the space between the congregation and the sanctuary and altar. So the people saw the painting from the position we duplicated in our experiment. In the Prado Museum where the painting now hangs, it is on the right wall of the main hall, so visitors to the museum get this view as they approach the painting.

Tintoretto was always teaching the truths of the Christian Faith in his paintings. Here he reminds us that we must let Christ cleanse us of our sins before we partake of His Supper; and that once we are nourished with His Body and Blood we are to imitate His example of service.

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Sacred Paintings Blog

Here we will talk about great works of sacred art from various periods of Church history.


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