Rosie Morton - my art exploration:

“Ecce Homo – Behold the Man":  This painting is part of a Lenten music and art collaboration with a friend of mine; Jaakko Saarinen, who directs a group called "Donum Dei".  It will be displayed during a concert of early music in Finland including works by Palestrina, Antonio de Cabezón, Tallis, Victoria and Gesualdo.  We wanted the music and art to work together to give the audience a fuller appreciation of the mysteries of the Passion.  We hope to continue this collaboration in the future.

The painting shows the moment when Christ is returned to Pilate and the crowd, having been scourged on Pilate’s orders. I wanted to show the shock that this might have given even a hard-hearted Roman governor when he saw the horrific result. For an instant, behind his mask of control, he is too stunned to speak, then he remembers himself and turns to the crowds, saying “Behold the man.”

I also wanted to show the contrast between Pilate and Christ.  

Pilate:  fallen man; weak and cowardly: allowing an innocent man to be sentenced to death, having tried to wash his conscience clean of the guilt by washing his hands before the crowd, yet inwardly horrified and powerless to stop what he knows to be a terrible injustice. For me he can represent every person in authority who fails to use their influence to do the right thing and gives away their integrity for fear of the consequences.  

Christ:  God made man; innocent and lovingly accepting to take our sins and guilt upon Him in order that we may be washed clean in His blood and restored from our fall. The face of Christ is viewed from an unusual close-cropped angle, deliberately large in order to focus on the beautiful face of His divinity veiled and hidden for our sakes under human features; veiled and hidden still more under the blood, dirt and spittle that disfigure even its natural beauty to the point of hideousness. This also symbolises the ugliness of sin which disfigures fallen human nature and shows the profound humility of the Son of God who, in the words of St. Paul: “Emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant…”, that we might become adopted sons. Concentrating on the face of Christ like this allowed me to understand more profoundly a Catholic devotion called the “Holy Face” in which the outrages that God, in His love, was prepared to suffer to His divine face and the “masking” of His divinity is meditated and honoured.