Dimensions: 25 5/8 x 34 1/2 in. (65.09 x 87.63 cm) (sight)36 1/4 x 46 in. (92.08 x 116.84 cm) (outer frame)
Copyright: Public Domain
Editor: Here we have Ary Scheffer’s "Christus Consolator," painted in 1851. It's an oil on canvas. The way Christ is centered and elevated gives this a powerful sense of... authority, almost detached. What can you tell me about this painting? Curator: Notice the distinct ways Scheffer uses oil paint. The deliberate layering, the smooth finish – this wasn’t just about depicting a religious scene. It's about constructing a very specific *kind* of religious object, intended for mass consumption during the rise of industrial printmaking and reproduction. Editor: Mass consumption? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the socio-economic climate of the time. The rise of the middle class, the availability of cheap prints – these impacted how art was made and consumed. Scheffer catered to a market hungry for religious imagery, creating paintings easily translated into widely distributed engravings. This painting becomes a commodity, an object within a market, as much as it is a devotional piece. How does this influence your view of this artwork? Editor: I suppose I hadn’t thought about the commercial aspect so directly tied to the *material* of the artwork. The choice of oil paint, its reproducibility... It shifts my perspective. Curator: Precisely! It's vital to question the artwork's role in society: to ask not just "what does it depict?" but "how was it made, who was it made for, and what was the material reality of its production and distribution?". Considering the material aspects broadens how we interpret art. Editor: That makes sense. It definitely opens my eyes to thinking about more than just the subject matter. Curator: Indeed, paying attention to the conditions of creation allows for a far more layered reading.
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Ary Scheffer was a renowned French painter active during the first half of the nineteenth century. Christus Consolator was one of his most celebrated compositions, of which numerous versions exist. The subject was inspired by Luke 4:18: "I have come to comfort those who are brokenhearted and to announce to the prisoners their deliverance; to liberate those who are crushed by their chains." The "brokenhearted" are depicted to the left. A kneeling woman mourns her dead child, while in the background (from left to right) we see an exile with his walking stick, a castaway with a piece of ship's wreckage in his hand, and a suicide with a dagger. Placed near these groups are Torquato Tasso, a sixteenth-century poet imprisoned as a madman, and figures representing the three ages of women. To the right of Christ are the oppressed of both the past and present, among them a Roman slave, a medieval serf, a Greek independence fighter, and a fettered African slave. With his left hand Christ releases from his shackles a dying man, who personifies Poland with the shattered weapons of his failed 1832 insurrection against Russia by his side. The repentant Mary Magdalene kneels beside Christ. Christus Consolator
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