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Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 2.2 (2002) 267-270



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Book Review

Seeing Salvation:
Images of Christ in Art


Seeing Salvation: Images of Christ in Art. By Neil MacGregor and Erika Langmuir. New Haven: Yale University Press. 240 pp. 60 illus. $35.00.

I remember well the sandy-haired, light-skinned Jesus I first met as a young child. He sat so gently in his white robes, surrounded by eager children, not unlike Sister Thomas Ann in her floor-length habit as she gathered us into a circle, sharing her picture-book Bible with our first grade class. The Jesus in Sister's picture was my friend, she said, and he loved little children. Soon, however, I encountered the quote, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Why, I wondered, would Jesus want little children to suffer? This question lingered as I contemplated a grisly depiction of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, my school's patron. At home, Mary Magdalen entranced me from the pages of my favorite book. She sat in a darkened cave, her long hair loose, unkempt. A flowing red robe draped her body, and the one candle in the scene illuminated a pen in her hand, an open book, and, most surprisingly of all, a bare human skull.

Such images and stories of Jesus and the saints accompanied my instruction in the faith, as they have accompanied believers since the early centuries of Christian history. Gracing the walls of churches and catacombs, shaped into free-standing sculptures or in relief on sarcophagi, these images of life, of suffering in the face of death, and of glorious resurrection were created to instruct their viewers in the faith, to inspire religious belief, to express hope in the life to come, and, occasionally, for rather less seemly reasons.

Seeing Salvation: Images of Christ in Art celebrates the power, politics, and poignancy of Western European religious imagery of Jesus' birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection. Authors Neil MacGregor and Erika Langmuir treat these images reverently: with sympathy to their religious claims; with appreciation for their artistic subtleties; and with insight into the arcana surrounding their creation and reception. The authors' interpretations include not only artistic, religious, and historical details, [End Page 267] but also, on occasion, speculations about how the experiences of specific artists contribute to their work, for example, the ways in which historical facts about Michelangelo's life coincide with his successive depictions of the Pietà.

MacGregor and Langmuir are both art historians (MacGregor directs London's National Gallery), and they have chosen to arrange their book according to events in Jesus' life, treating various artistic, theological, and socio-historical themes along the way. For instance, the book's first chapter, "Jan Gossaert: The Adoration of the Kings," and its second, "King Among Kings," not only provide art-historical critiques of the featured images, they also draw readers' attention to notable ways in which the interests of art patrons have influenced some of the most beloved religious art in our tradition.

After the beginning chapters on Jesus' infancy in part one of the book, chapters that concentrate on theological themes of kingship and "sovereign helplessness," Seeing Salvation continues with part two, "The Question of Appearance." The first chapter of this section treats iconography associated with Jesus, such as the Chi Rho, the fish, and the vine and the branches; while the second examines the ongoing "Quest for the True Likeness" of Jesus. This second chapter explores at length images that believers at various times have considered to be authentic representations of Jesus, such as the Acheiropoieton, or "image not made by human hands"; the Mandylion; and the Holy Sudarium, from which we have received the legend of Veronica. MacGregor and Langmuir recount the miraculous stories surrounding the creation of these and other such "true" images, as well as the traditions of piety they have engendered. This is one of the most useful chapters in Seeing Salvation, because it so clearly illustrates the multiple challenges inherent in the task of interpreting religious art.

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