In 1627, the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán painted an oil canvas depicting Christ crucified on the cross. In this painting, the focus is on Jesus and everything else is just a black shadow.
Fast forward to 1867, it was the turn of the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme to artistically represent the crucifixion scene. Here’s what he did:
Unlike de Zurbarán’s painting where Jesus was the center of attraction, Gérôme flips the arrangement such that everything else is in vivid detail while Jesus is not even present. The only way we can tell that this art piece is about the crucifixion is by looking at the shadows cast by Jesus and the two thieves on the bottom right of the painting!
By comparing art done at different time points, we can see the directions society’s values are shifting towards. We see how we’ve pretty much conspired together to dethrone God from the center of our lives, all the while shining the spotlight on ourselves as we try to take over the center stage.
I’ll end this with an excerpt from Charles Van Doren’s excellent book ‘A History of Knowledge’ where he articulates how art can capture shifts in society’s priorities:
“Piero della Francesca (1420-1492), exemplified this new vision…In Urbino, under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, he produced some of the best of his mature works, among them the famous ‘Flagellation’ that has taunted and frustrated critics for nearly five hundred years…It is divided into two parts. On the left, in the background, near the vanishing point of the perspective, Christ, a small, forlorn figure, stands bound to a column, while Roman soldiers raise their whips to torture him. On the right, in the foreground, depicted in vibrant colors, stand three Renaissance dandies, conversing with one another (about what? money? women?). They pay no attention to the drama that is taking place behind them. Their eyes are turned away from the suffering of the Son of God, and they evidently do not hear his moans or the whistle of the scourges as they fall…Nevertheless, the painting does reveal a world in which earthly matters are more highly valued. Christ’s suffering, though not forgotten, has become almost absurdly unimportant. Significant now are youth, good looks, fine clothes, money, and worldly success (according to the viewer’s notion). And this belief, more than realism, naturalism, or verisimilitude, lay at the very center of the Renaissance style in art.”
