Question

Art by Eugene Delacroix’s “Christ Asleep during the Tempest”

1How is the work inspiring?

2In what way is it meaningful?

3Does it possess lasting value to you, personally? State why or why not.

Answer 1

Answer.

E. Delacroix's Christ on the Sea of Galilee is based on a story from the New Testament, and depicts sleeping Jesus in a peaceful demeanour agianst a turbulent sea with his head in his hand at the end of a rowboat. Meanwhile, a group of frantic men struggle to get control of the boat on the storm-tossed sea. One man in the center waves his hands in the air in a gesture of helplessness.

The painting is iconic of a process of exploration of personal significance of religious symbols. The contrasting image of peaceful Jesus and the agitated ‘common’ boat riders indicate that images were motivated not by a need to inspire but a need to understand. The thick brushstrokes of the sea and the sky further accentuate the theme of the Biblical notion of the division between the sky ( Heaven) and the Earth. Jesus sitting on the edge of the boat rising on the tide is thus closer to the horizon and he seems to be calmer about the possible doom while common human beings are shown to give in to the disturbance and experience the anxiety about death. The painting is significant in terms of the historical art movement to which Delacroix belonged as well. It shows how Romanticism is not an optimistic art, it also acknowledges the violence that is inseparable from the process of visual appreciation.

Delacroix’s work depicts a point of personal significance as it invites the gaze of my viewer subjectivity towards the contrast that is experienced by most of us about the different responses to life and death and the anxiety that may be lived in that experience. The representation of Jesus as a calming person marks a unique contrast and it goes to show how our faith in a higher spiritual entity is reinforced through such social beliefs about the composure and stability of godly entities against our own emotionally volatile responses to difficult circumstances.