His eyes are closed; long hair falls over the white robe.
Bible in art · Matthew
Jesus Transported by a Spirit onto a High Mountain (Jésus transporté par l'esprit sur une haute montagne)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Tissot found a way to paint the devil without a monster. Jesus floats in the night sky in a white robe, arms open, carried above a dark mountain ridge with a thin line of light on the horizon.
Behind him falls a long black shadow in the shape of a man, stretched out across the sky. It is the only sign of the one who has taken him there.
From the text
- “the devil took Him to a very high mountain” (Matthew 4:8)
- He shows Him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matthew 4:8)
The artist’s own
- Jesus carried through the air
- The devil shown only as a shadow
Details
Jesus
The shadow
A dark human-shaped shadow stretches behind and below him.
The ridge
Black hills with a faint pink line of light above them.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.50) · 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".