They stand together in coloured mantles, faces hidden.
Bible in art · Luke
The Holy Women Watch from Afar (Les saintes femmes observent de loin)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee stand in a group on the slope below Golgotha, wrapped in mantles of orange, grey and blue, some hiding their faces. One lies on the ground at their feet.
The hill rises behind them with rough steps cut into the rock and a dark cave. At the very top, small and far away against a heavy sky, are the crosses and the crowd; Tissot kept them distant.
From the text
- “all those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things” (Luke 23:49)
- Among them Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons (Matthew 27:56)
The artist’s own
- The crosses kept tiny and far off
- A woman lying on the ground in grief
Details
The women
On the ground
A woman lies bowed down on the path.
Far away
The crosses and the crowd at the top of the hill.
The cave
A dark opening in the rock face.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.287) · 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".