He reaches out while the soldiers hold him.
Bible in art · Luke
The Healing of Malchus (La guérison de Malchus)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Among a press of soldiers with clubs, spears and lanterns, Jesus stands with a rope tied round him and stretches out his arm to touch the ear of a bearded man in a blue tunic.
The servant stares, his hand raised; the soldiers around them look on with hard faces. Tissot crowded the sheet with heads and weapons in reddish torchlight.
From the text
- One of them strikes the servant of the high priest, “cutting off his right ear” (Luke 22:50)
- “He touched the man’s ear and healed him” (Luke 22:51)
The artist’s own
- Jesus already bound with a rope
- The servant in a blue tunic with a strap across his chest
Details
Jesus
The servant
A bearded man feels the touch on his ear.
The rope
A cord is wound round Jesus’ body.
Weapons
Clubs and spears raised above the crowd.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.239) · 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".