From solitude to destiny

Today I visited the State Tretyakov Gallery of Russian Art in Moscow.  It contains three Christian paintings of international significance (or a few more if you include other icons).  I'll begin with Rublev's Trinity, the most famous icon of all time.  I don't intend to say anything about it (at least yet), just leave it here for you to admire:

The second is Ivan Kramskoy's Christ in the Desert (1872).  This is a painting possibly better known outside Russia than in it -having been used in a number of meditative collections in Western Christian circles over the last 20years.  Unlike most paintings of the temptation in the wilderness, which usually include the devil showing Jesus the temptations, or angels ministering to him afterwards, Kramskoy stresses Christ being alone:

 

The Tretyakov seems to have an ambivalent attitude to its religious art.  It appears that the Soviet years have left their legacy, clearly displayed in the gift shop which largely ignores these works.  One of the official guides showing some Americans round, passed quickly over Christ in the Dessert, turning instead to the next Kramskoy saying "Here we have his real masterpiece:"

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I despair!  They don't even know who this girl is.  Its 'A Portrait of an Unknown Girl'!
Returning to Christ, a far deeper psychological painting, we are drawn into his reflective posture and quiet stillness:

 

Before him one or two stones stand out.  Would it hurt to turn just one onto a small bread roll?  You can almost hear his thoughts:

In the distance the sun rises and sets for forty days, but Jesus has no time for the beauty of creation - he faces challenges of his own.

 

 

The third painting is 'The Appearance of Christ Before the People'  by Alexander Ivanov.  This was quite literally his life's work -taking over 20 years to paint.

 

John the Baptist points his followers towards 'the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World'

To John's left are disciples who left John to follow Jesus, including a red haired young John who is keen to go and Nathaniel (in turquoise) who is wondering "can anything good come out of Nazareth".  But Jesus does not head towards these disciples-to-be but rather towards the crowd including soldiers, Pharisees and the as yet unbaptised.  He has come not to see the faithful but to seek the lost.

But the thing I love about it is the contrast with Christ in the Desert.  Christ is recognisably the same - Kramskoy was painting 17 years after Ivanov and will have consciously and deliberately modelled his Christ on the earlier work.  The Appearance comes chronologically immediately after the temptation in the wilderness. So the contrast is there between Christ praying alone and Christ being surrounded by people -with a wide variety of responses to him.  There is a sense of trepidation as he approaches his public ministry that is carried over from the trepidation he felt on the desert.

Perhaps these are images I will return to when my sabbatical ends and I return to my work among parishioners!