But this Jesus mainly appears as a Jewish Jesus, not the Christian Messiah with halo. He wears a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) instead of an ordinary loincloth, phylacteries (leather boxes with Hebrew texts), and is depicted alongside other Judaica, such as Torah scrolls. (See The Artist with Yellow Christ, 1938; Study for The Yellow Crucifixion, 1942; and Christ in the Night, 1948.)
Chagall produced more than one hundred paintings of the Crucifixion during his career, but as Goodman explains in her insightful essay in the catalogue, this "should not be seen as implying a rejection of his strong Jewish cultural ties." For him, especially during the war years, Jesus on the cross was "an effective expression of the Holocaust" — not a rejection of Judaism.
As Chagall himself wrote in 1957, the motif served as "an expression of the human, Jewish sadness and pain which Jesus personifies … Perhaps I could have painted another Jewish prophet, but after two thousand years mankind has become attached to the figure of Jesus." Interestingly, Chagall was raised by observant Jews, but was not an observant Jew himself. As Goodman writes, he was a "largely secular" Jew whose "embrace of mainstream European (Christian) culture resulted in his absorbing its predominant symbols within his artistic language."
Chagall grieved in this period for the fate of the Jewish people, but he suffered tragic losses closer to home as well. In 1944, his beloved wife Bella died suddenly of a viral infection in the Adirondacks, and her death cast a pall over his art for several years thereafter. The Fall of the Angel, 1927-33-47, one of his largest easel paintings — reworked in 1933 and again in 1947 — is prominently displayed at the beginning of the show and perhaps best expresses the spirit of the artist's work before, during and after the war.
Biographer Franz Meyer calls the canvas "the allegory of an age of terror." Chagall paints a dark, apocalyptic scene, which became progressively darker as it was reworked. A blood red (upside down) angel descends from the sky, flanked by a mother clinging to her baby and Jesus on the cross to the right, and a man clutching a Torah to the left. Familiar Chagallian motifs abound: an airborne grandfather clock (like the one from his parents’ home, a symbol of time and loss) and a cow playing a violin.
The Fall of the Angel, 1923-33-47, oil on canvas. Private collection, on deposit at the Kunstmuseum Basel
But whereas the show delves pretty quickly into the terror of the war paintings, it just as quickly segues out of the terror to a happier time — when Chagall met and started a romance with companion Virginia Haggard McNeil. In 1946, embarking on a new life, he moved to the Hudson River town of High Falls, New York, with Virginia and her daughter Jean; the couple later had a son, David. Chagall's paintings from this point on become brighter and, while still feeling the pull of his old life with Bella, joy and warmth (and cheerful flying figures) return to his paintings. (See The Bride and Groom on Cock, 1939-47, and Cow with Parasol, 1946.)
Self-Portrait with Clock, 1947, oil on canvas. Private collection
Self-Portrait with Clock (1947), grouped with the later paintings at the show's conclusion, is another exhibit highlight. A landmark work, it perfectly illustrates Chagall's emotional conflict in the wake of Bella's death. A blue Virginia hugs and comforts the artist — depicted as a red goat with palette and brushes — who has painted an image of his bride Bella embracing a crucified Jesus (translation: embracing Chagall, a martyr, who still grieves for her).
This exhibit begins with lovers, and it ends with lovers. It clearly wants to persuade visitors that love has the power to heal and the power to triumph over trauma and evil — even evil of the worst sort.
©2013 Val Castronovo for SeniorWomen.com
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