My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious … From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born (Munch, in Prideaux 2005: 2).
The most celebrated of Norwegian artists, Edvard Munch, grew up in a strongly Lutheran Pietist household. He endured stark childhood bereavements which had lasting effects on his life and work. His mother died in 1868 and his favourite sister in 1877.
In Golgotha, Christ on the cross, rendered as a simple naked boy-like figure, is depicted in bright light and lifted clear of the crowd, thus already alluding to his resurrection. Strikingly, the crowd in the background appears to strain towards the cross, while in the foreground there are seven figures, five of them with their backs to Christ and with mocking expressions that seem to suggest evil intent. The dark background alludes forbiddingly to the darkness that fell over the land during Christ’s suffering and death.
The painting may hint at something of the artist’s turbulent personal life in this period. It has been suggested that the seven figures in the foreground symbolize the seven deadly sins with the central figure identified as that of the poet Stanisław Przbyszewski, personifying jealousy. Munch developed a friendship, and possibly had an affair, with Przbyszewski’s Norwegian wife, Dagny Juel Przybyszewska, before she married the poet. The artist painted several images entitled Jealousy in which Przbyszewski features prominently.
Jesus’s hearers took up stones to stone him (John 10:31) as he spoke of his calling. The figure of Christ may also represent Munch himself—the artist as outsider of society, and possibly even as outsider of the Church in which he had been brought up—identifying with Jesus’s suffering and sense of marginalization.
References
Prideaux, Sue. 2005. Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (New Haven: Yale University Press)
22 It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; 23it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me; 26but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; 28and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?” 33The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), 36do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained. 41And many came to him; and they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42And many believed in him there.
Edvard Munch
Golgotha, 1900, Oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cm, Munchmuseet, Oslo, © The Munch Museum / The Munch-Ellingsen Group / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY HIP / Art Resource, NY
Rejected
The most celebrated of Norwegian artists, Edvard Munch, grew up in a strongly Lutheran Pietist household. He endured stark childhood bereavements which had lasting effects on his life and work. His mother died in 1868 and his favourite sister in 1877.
In Golgotha, Christ on the cross, rendered as a simple naked boy-like figure, is depicted in bright light and lifted clear of the crowd, thus already alluding to his resurrection. Strikingly, the crowd in the background appears to strain towards the cross, while in the foreground there are seven figures, five of them with their backs to Christ and with mocking expressions that seem to suggest evil intent. The dark background alludes forbiddingly to the darkness that fell over the land during Christ’s suffering and death.
The painting may hint at something of the artist’s turbulent personal life in this period. It has been suggested that the seven figures in the foreground symbolize the seven deadly sins with the central figure identified as that of the poet Stanisław Przbyszewski, personifying jealousy. Munch developed a friendship, and possibly had an affair, with Przbyszewski’s Norwegian wife, Dagny Juel Przybyszewska, before she married the poet. The artist painted several images entitled Jealousy in which Przbyszewski features prominently.
Jesus’s hearers took up stones to stone him (John 10:31) as he spoke of his calling. The figure of Christ may also represent Munch himself—the artist as outsider of society, and possibly even as outsider of the Church in which he had been brought up—identifying with Jesus’s suffering and sense of marginalization.
References
Prideaux, Sue. 2005. Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (New Haven: Yale University Press)
Read next commentary
John 10:22–42
Revised Standard Version
22 It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; 23it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me; 26but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; 28and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?” 33The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), 36do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained. 41And many came to him; and they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42And many believed in him there.
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