The Meditation On The Passion - 1177 Words

The Interpretation Of The Meditation The Meditation on the Passion Edwin Rivas Orientation In Art Fall 2015 Vittore Carpaccio Italian, Venice 1460/66?-1525/26 The Meditation on the Passion ca. 1490 Oil and tempera on wood This extraordinary work by Carpaccio is a landmark in the history of devotional images. It is, in effect, a meditation on the them of Death and Resurrection. To the right, the Old Testament figure Job sits on a block inscribed in pseudo-Hebrew, while on the left, portrayed as a hermit, is Saint Jerome (ca. 347 -420), who wrote a commentary on the book of Job. Christ’s dead body is displayed on a broken throne, also inscribed in pseudo-Hebrew. A bird—symbol of the soul —flies upwards. The landscape, barren on the†¦show more content†¦Vittore Carpaccio’s symmetrical input truly served it’s purpose. Focusing on the center third of the painting, there’s a mere perfect symmetrical contrast of life and death top to bottom. Most impacting is the symmetrical division of the malnourished and tortured body of Jesus Christ, The left side of his body is in a lively sitting posture on the throne. While his right side is the embodiment of death, his punctured ribs and dangling arm. From the ground up, Carpaccio illustrates the contrast of life and death with minimal details in the painting. The supporting stones of the throne, directly below the arm rests, are divided by breakage, the left stone is cracked and falling apart, while the opposing stone appears to be intact. Vittore Carpaccio managed to capture the cycle of life with many elements one wouldn’t think of comparing life and death with. The top left portion of the throne is a half broken, followed by Jesus’s deadly posture to the falling apart ground stone of the throne, Death is captured in a very recognizable minimalistic form. Saint Jerome on the right and Job on the left, are vivid images of the epitome of true devotion and worship to Jesus. As they both have a contemplating stare in their eyes, evoking the acceptance of the death of Jesus Christ. Following their eyes out, it’s clear Carpaccio directed them towards the viewer to evoke the invitational feeling of devotion and respect towards the deceased image of christ. Even