Ford Madox Brown

Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet, 1852–56, Oil on canvas, 117 x 133 cm, Tate; N01394, © Tate, London / Art Resource, NY

Intolerable Humility

Commentary by Michael Banner

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Peter accepts the washing of his feet, but he does not seem to do so comfortably. His tightly clasped hands, furrowed brow and troubled visage, suggest an uneasy state of mind, even if his initial demurral (‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’; John 13:6) has been overcome. Judas to the left (identified by a bag of coins, being the one who kept ‘the money box’; John 12:6, and his traditional red hair) looks on coolly—but the other disciples seem as unsettled as Peter, and the one with his head in his hands especially so.

What is discomfiting to Peter is presumably just that Jesus should take on a task usually performed by a slave (to use the proper translation). And from the low, close up perspective Ford Madox Brown has chosen, we focus on these two main ‘actors’, but also appreciate that the job of washing a dozen pairs of dusty feet is no mean feat—or rather is a distinctly mean feat. The kneeling Christ, however, bends intently to his task, with the determination which will lead him quite shortly to go out to sacrifice his life. This act of humility and service is both the opening scene and a prefiguration of that later one.

In accordance with ideals championed by some members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with which he was associated (albeit not as a member), Brown portrays the scene with a naturalness of action and emotion—and in his first attempt at the work, Christ, who ‘laid aside his garments’ to wash his disciples’ feet (v.4), was depicted in a loin cloth, his legs and torso as bare as they would be at his crucifixion.

But as Peter could barely tolerate that the one he called Lord should so humble himself, no more could Brown’s contemporaries tolerate the depiction of Christ as a naked servant, and so—bowing to public taste—Brown added to the composition the much fuller green robes which Christ now wears. The utter humility of the servant Lord was as intolerable to his later as to his earlier followers.

See full exhibition for John 13:1–20

John 13:1–20

Revised Standard Version

13Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. 5Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. 6He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.” 8Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” 9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”

12 When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 18I am not speaking of you all; I know whom I have chosen; it is that the scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. 20Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”

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