He stands on a rock with both hands raised.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Sermon of the Beatitudes (Le sermon des béatitudes)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Tissot gave the Sermon on the Mount a vast audience. Jesus stands on a rock high on a grassy hillside, small and white against the sky, with his hands raised; the lake shines far off at the left.
The crowd fills the whole slope below and stretches away into the distance as a mass of tiny heads. In the foreground we stand among the listeners, seen from behind in white headcloths, striped mantles and turbans.
From the text
- “He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him” (Matthew 5:1)
- “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3)
The artist’s own
- Jesus standing rather than sitting, so that he can be seen
- A crowd of thousands on the hillside
Details
Jesus
The far crowd
A sea of small figures covers the slope.
The lake
Water gleams beyond the hills.
Listeners
Men and women seen from behind in the foreground.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.124) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".