Men lean through the opening and hold the ropes.
Bible in art · Mark
The Palsied Man Let Down through the Roof (Le paralytique descendu du toit)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Tissot showed the moment from inside the crowded house. Through a hole in the ceiling, men on the roof lower the paralysed man on a grey cloth held by ropes, and those below stretch up their arms to take him.
The room is packed: people sit on the floor in white headcloths and look up, one points, another throws up both arms. Plates stand on a shelf at the left, and a red patterned carpet covers the floor.
From the text
- “they uncovered the roof above Him, made an opening, and lowered the paralytic on his mat” (Mark 2:4)
- “there was no more room, not even outside the door” (Mark 2:2)
The artist’s own
- The view from below, looking up through the roof
- The man lowered in a sling of cloth
Details
On the roof
The paralysed man
He hangs in a grey cloth, held up by many hands.
Reaching up
An arm stretches out towards him from the crowd.
The shelf
Large decorated plates stand on a shelf.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.123) · 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".