According to the Gospel of Mark, Crucifixion on a cross was seen as a painful and humiliating form of punishment for criminals or prisoners such as for Jesus of Nazareth. For El Greco, a painter from Crete, Jesus’ crucifixion and the symbolism of the cross is glorified through his willingness to sacrifice himself for humankind. 

In El Greco’s painting, you can see Jesus by himself carrying a cross. However,  in Mark chapter 21, we see that Jesus’ cross was carried by Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. This is important because El Greco wanted to focus on the relationship that Jesus had with the cross and not take away any attention by adding in any other figures to the painting. 

El Greco’s style of painting was different from other classical artists. He focused on radical foreshortening (to portray or show as closer than it is) as we can see in his artwork. This foreshortening image of Jesus distracts the viewer from recognizing the awful reality of crucifixion. That is why the background of the photo is blurred and dark, because the main focus is on Jesus and the cross, the location of Jesus is irrelevant. We can see in the painting that Jesus is gently holding the cross in his arms while looking up towards heaven. Even though Jesus knows he will be dying on that cross, El Greco focuses on Jesus’ embrace with the cross hugging it dear to his heart.

Christianity in the Gospel of Mark

El Greco’s painting relates back to a verse in Mark 8:34, when Jesus said to his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus wants those who are looking to renew their life with God to deny who they are and to follow him. In the Gospel of Mark, many would follow Jesus in crowds and watch him perform miracles, but what does it mean to take up your cross and actually follow Jesus and not just walk with him? After Mark’s time, this statement would come to be understood that, both in the Christian religion as well as in El Greco’s painting, Jesus wants his followers to surrender their life to him and be willing to die to follow him. This was seen as an absolute surrender to Jesus as opposed to just walking with him and following his commands. 

El Greco aims to create this story through his knowledge of Christianity in his own time. He focuses on a deeper and more positive meaning of crucifixion which in the Gospel of Mark was seen as gruesome and humiliating. You can truly see the relationship Jesus has with the cross as a sacrifice for others because of his love for the world, which would be celebrated and praised in the Christian religion forever. 

The cross would become a symbol of forgiveness, grace, love, and faith for Christians. In the 4th century, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, abolishing crucifixion as a death penalty, and promoting the cross as a symbol for the Son of God. 

The Garden

After reading Sophia Friguletto’s afterlife post on “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, I noticed that her and I both have the exact same argument within our posts. We both focus on how artists are reinterpreting the text within the Bible, as described through their paintings. El Greco focuses on creating a Christian perspective in his artwork by developing his own interpretation of Mark. Sophia focuses on Hieronymus Bosch’s interpretation of sin throughout Genesis in his triptych, mentioning that Genesis blames humans for their corruption, but Bosch does not. 

I find it inspiring how El Greco and Bosch have completely different styles of artwork, but they both focus on important aspects within the artwork to relate to the Bible or Christianity while giving their own twist to it. That’s the amazing part about artwork, there are no rules and it gives artists like Bosch and El Greco the ability to change the meaning of original texts to give viewers a different perspective or deeper meaning to think about.

Nathan Fasanaro

Author

Hi! I am a first year here at Colgate University and a member of the Mens Lacrosse Team. I am undecided for a major but plan on doing Political Science. I hope you enjoy reading my posts!