The great artists at Easter

We used to call them ‘holy pictures’ back in the long-ago days of my convent education – cheap little copies of paintings by Raphael and Botticelli, on which we schoolgirls would write messages to each other on the obverse side.

And now I realise how influential these images were in illuminating the epic events of the New Testament, and forming such vivid pictures on my inner eye.

The events of Holy Week and Easter are inextricably connected, for me, to the great artists who have reimagined the New Testament with their paintbrush.

Last Supper

Surely Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ is one of the most famous, most recognisable, paintings in the world, transmitting to all of humanity the enormous significance of that Passover meal with the Apostles, which becomes so central to the Mass.

There are so many momentous paintings of the crucifixion – from Giotto and Dürer to Caravaggio and even Salvador Dalí – which have become an inspiration to faith through the ages.

Michelangelo’s ‘Pietà’ is the most touching, and vulnerable, depiction of Christ’s passion and his mother’s tenderness, and it goes straight to the heart.

And the images of the Resurrection, as portrayed by Paolo Veronese, Piero della Francesco, Giovanni Bellini and Peter Paul Rubens, transmit to us, with immense power, the true and glorious meaning of Easter.

It so closely illustrates the gospels of Mark and Matthew, when Jesus stands accused of false claims to kingship – ‘and he answered nothing’

One of my personal favourites – it had such an impact on me when I first saw the original – is Gerrit van Honthurst’s ‘Christ Before the High Priest’, painted about 1617. It so closely illustrates the gospels of Mark and Matthew, when Jesus stands accused of false claims to kingship – “and he answered nothing”.  It’s an unforgettable image.

Even the usual ‘Stations of the Cross’ have a significant visual effect. Although these are often Victorian compositions and not considered to be of especial artistic merit, they follow in the tradition of the divinely-inspired art of the great masters. (Some churches favour more original, and more modern, versions of the path to Calvary.)

Society

Society has changed entirely since my schooldays and those ‘holy pictures’ which used to be so common, and the religious significance of Easter, has really faded from everyday public life. Good Friday has become just another ‘bank holiday’ in the calendar, for many. That’s why we must cherish the great art which once evangelised, and still bears witness to, the most important of all Christian feasts.

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People complain about social media and the ‘slop’ it may contain, and worse. But currently Twitter (‘X’) is constantly reporting news about increased Christian baptisms and faith activity in many different countries; little of this has appeared in mainstream media.

There have been mini-videos from all over the world of Palm Sunday processions, from India to Brazil, with elaborate and beautiful short films especially from Spain. It also surprised me to see so many Palm Sunday crowds in Canada. This medium, for all its faults, can be a window on a universal faith.

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Galway western alliance

Lelia Doolan, aged 91, author, film director, and now often called an ‘activist’ was spending Holy Week walking from Shannon Airport to Dublin. It could be described as a pilgrimage for peace: Lelia’s purpose is to protest against the Irish Government ever allowing Shannon to be used for US military planes or personnel. Ireland is neutral, she points out, and any enabling of military presence is an insult to our neutrality.

Lelia, who lives in Gort, Co. Galway, is a remarkable person, and a woman of great kindness, energy and altruistic dedication to others. I admire her unreservedly for her valour, guts and endurance – on some days she’ll be doing 25 kilometres on foot. (Even though my views on Irish neutrality are rather more aligned with the late Seán Lemass – that we’re formally neutral but definitely on the side of the Western alliance. Moreover, Micheál Martin denies that Shannon is being used to facilitate the present war with Iran.)

Still, Lelia is amazing to walk this road. And Galway seems to produce our leading peaceniks: Michael D and Sabina, Catherine Connolly, the late Margaretta D’Arcy who resided in Galway since 1968, the actress Olwen Fouéré. In Galway, an alternative ‘western alliance’ evidently flourishes.

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I attend a monthly singing lesson, not because I’m much of a singer but because a consultant at London’s leading chest hospital, the Brompton, told me singing was great medicine for any pulmonary problem, such as breathlessness.

This week, my singing teacher directed me to rehearse and sing Easter Parade, originally vocalised by Judy Garland in the 1940s and written by the renowned Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin. It’s certainly a secular aspect of Easter, yet it evokes a springtime hopefulness that blends joyfully with the main event. And, as I recall, women did often wear new clothes and a new hat – the ‘Easter bonnet’ – for an Easter Sunday Mass…