OHRA 1984

Jesus C in Krakow

Art:  1984
Media: pencil on paper, inset in artified wood frame.
Size: (to be added)

I did this drawing in Krakow, July 14,  1984, while visiting an art museum of older (pre-modern) era art.
It’s the only image I’ve ever done of Jesus.
My notes on the bottom of the drawing include:
Christ in croix-vers, about 1520.
Provenance of L’eglise de stary – wisnicz (church of…)
Wood sculpture avec patina (life-sized). [Avec is French, meaning with]

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Notes, Dec. 1, 2019: A Google text and separate image search for ‘Christ on the cross, 1520,’ art museum, and/or Stary Wisnicz church, Krakow and or carvings, sculptures of Jesus, Krakow, Poland did not bring up any relevant images or text. I wondered if there might be a photo of the 1520 carving viewable on the net…

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Of  the church in Poland, historically, it has been a very mixed bag, so to speak. It has included Roman Catholic clergy fomented murderous persecution; and the church itself has suffered murderous persecution.

The Catholic church in Poland has historically had a great deal of clergy-led incitement and violence against Jewish people over centuries.

Some Roman Catholic clergy were murdered by the Wehrmacht & SS during WWII.
[See UTW 68]

During the post WWII Communist government years the church was repressed.  Concurrently, three were well-known anti-Semites among some church clergy, e.g. the late Cardinal Glemp.

The depiction of Jesus on the cross has been done by a number of Jewish artists.
They include a number of paintings by the great Jewish painter, Marc Chagall, among others.
A 2017 Washington Post newspaper article about an art exhibit, at Israel’s Jewish Museum, of art by Jewish artists who’ve created crucifixion imagery.

I framed and gave the drawing to friends as a wedding gift. The work is now owned by one of the two of the former couple; since divorced; each is remarried, respectively .