Chagall and the Man of Sorrows

Introduction

Marc Chagall is often filed under the joyful Jewish painter, the one of flying newlyweds, weightless goats, and colorful bouquets. That evening, as part of the Soirées du 72, Martin Slaborn, pastor, interpreter at the Court of Justice of the European Union, and keen connoisseur of art, offers you a completely different side of Chagall: the painter who created more than a hundred crucifixions over half a century. Why did a Jewish artist paint Christ on the cross so often? What does he say to Christians who look at his canvases during Passion week? This lecture, given during the 40 days of Lent, invites you to read Chagall in depth, without reducing him either to an opera set designer or to a comfortable painter.

Message Outline

1. Golgotha (1912): the first depiction by a young 25-year-old painter

• Chagall is 25 and living in Paris. He paints his first crucifixion, Golgotha (Christos dem Gekreuzigten gewidmet), in a style borrowing from Cubism and the influence of Robert Delaunay.
• Christ appears there pale blue against a dark green background, with a child's proportions: "I wanted to represent Christ as an innocent child," Chagall would say in 1949.
• Two figures at his feet (perhaps his parents), , a man walking away with a ladder, and a rower in a boat crossing a river.
• Father Benetto, an Oratorian, sees in it a crossing from one shore to another: "Chagall always leads us toward an elsewhere. He is a ferryman."

2. Christ, a symbol of general human suffering?

• Only two canvases support this reading: Obsession (1943) and Resurrection by the River (1947).
• A rare feature in Chagall: the body is painted in a horizontal, almost lying-down position.
• Martin defends a personal thesis: these are better described as crucified figures than as crucifixions, an isolated Christ, outside the narrative context of the Passion.
• These are the only Chagall paintings where Christ appears this way; the rest of his work points toward a very different message.

3. Christ, symbol of the suffering Jewish people (1930s-1940s)

• After a trip to Palestine commissioned by an art publisher, Chagall multiplies crucifixions throughout the 1930s. Christ explicitly becomes the "type of Jewish martyrdom," as he himself writes.
• The White Crucifixion (1938), painted at the time of Kristallnacht, gathers all the signs together: a prayer shawl (tallit) around Christ's waist, Jewish houses in flames, a rescued Torah scroll, a menorah at the foot of the cross, a sinking boat (a likely allusion to the Struma tragedy).
• The Yellow Crucifixion, painted in New York in the middle of the war, shows Christ wearing phylacteries (tefillin), beside an immense green Torah and an angel blowing the shofar.
• Chagall responds to the Jewish critic John McBee, who accuses him of betraying his people: the painter was independent-minded enough to choose his own symbol, even at the risk of being misunderstood.
• This period culminates with The War (1964-1966, Kunsthaus Zürich): the very dark cross is relegated to the upper right, like an echo of a God who suffers with his people.

4. Crucifixion and self-portrait: Chagall as Christ

• Starting in the 1940s, Chagall shifts from symbolic identification to personal identification. He no longer merely paints the Jewish Christ: he associates himself with him.
• In Descent from the Cross (1941), the INRI plaque is replaced with "Marc Ch.": it is Chagall's own body being taken down from the cross, an angel handing him a painter's palette. An Austrian theologian, Jakob Bagnoud, reads this as the artist "conformed to Christ" and called not to remain silent.
• The poem The Crucified Painter, written by Chagall himself, confirms this reading: "You have forsaken me, my God, why? I run to my dry brushes and I am crucified like Christ."
• The triptych Resistance / Resurrection / Liberation (repainted between 1937 and 1952) traces the whole drama: suffering on the left, crucifixion in the center, then rediscovered joy on the right, where the cross nearly disappears, driven out of the picture by celebration and life.
• In Before the Painting (1968-1971), Chagall is 84 years old. His name appears in Hebrew on the cross, and his hand rests on his heart, "like one who lays down his life for his friends."

5. Christ, symbol of hope: The Exodus (1952-1966)

• The lecture's final painting: The Exodus, begun in 1952, completed in 1966. An immense yellow Christ hovers at the center above a Jewish crowd in blue and white.
• In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is presented as the new Moses: 40 days in the desert, the Sermon on the Mount as a new giving of the law, the transfiguration where he speaks with Moses and Elijah.
• The key word is found in Luke 9:31: translators render it "his departure," but the Greek text literally says "his exodus." Jesus discusses with Moses and Elijah his exodus, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
• The halo around Christ's body (the dominant visual element), indicates that the cross is no longer merely a horror, but the center of Israel's destiny and of world history.
• Jean-Michel Foray concludes: this saving Christ "tells us that despite the burning villages, salvation remains possible."

6. Synthesis: a threefold challenge for the Christian who looks at Chagall

• Our Lord comes from the Jewish people. He is son of Abraham, son of David, Son of Man.
• The suffering of the Jewish people (and of all who suffer, particularly in wars), is not foreign to Christ. He suffers with them.
• Christ is the suffering Servant announced by Isaiah. By placing him on the cross amid atrocities, Chagall reminds us that Christ calls us to reconciliation with God, the only solution to sin.

Key Takeaways

• Chagall painted more than a hundred crucifixions: this is not a morbid obsession, but a coherent theological reflection spanning more than fifty years.
• Chagall's Christ is almost always Jewish: a prayer shawl (tallit) around his waist, sometimes tefillin on his forehead, often a Torah at his side.
• The crucifixions of the 1930s and 1940s are an appeal addressed to Christians: "Look at what is being done to the people of your Savior."
• In several self-portraits, Chagall personally associates himself with the crucified figure, not to make himself God, but to say that an artist, like a prophet, carries his cross.
• In Chagall's work, the cross is never without hope: a lamp, a menorah, a halo, or an angel handing over a palette all recall that God suffers with his people and that salvation remains possible.

Personal Application

1. When you look at a work of art that seems to unsettle or disturb you, do you take the time to seek out the artist's inner logic, or do you move on too quickly?
2. Does the suffering of Christians in the face of historical antisemitism (which Chagall puts into painting), manage to touch you, move you to prayer, to concrete reflection?
3. Is the Christ you contemplate also the Jewish Christ, son of Abraham and son of David, or have you unconsciously detached him from his own people?
4. Facing today's burning villages (the wars, the persecutions of our time), , where do you place the cross in your view of the world?
5. How can your life, like Chagall's through his canvases, become an "appeal to consciences," a sign of possible reconciliation with God?

Verses Cited

• Isaiah 53 (the Suffering Servant of the LORD)
• Luke 9:28-36 (the transfiguration and "his exodus")
• Matthew 4:1-11 (the 40 days of temptation in the desert)
• Genesis 22 (the binding of Isaac)
• Mark 15:16-39 (the crucifixion of Jesus)

Further reading

• How to Integrate Newcomers into a Small Group
• Christian Leadership: Biblical Principles and Practical Advice
• Best Church Event Photography Tips

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Chagall, a Jewish artist, paint Christ on the cross so often?

Chagall himself explained it: "For me, Christ has always symbolized the true type of Jewish martyrdom." As early as 1908, shocked by the Russian pogroms, he began using this figure. In the 1930s and 1940s, faced with the rise of Nazism, Kristallnacht, and the Holocaust, he made it the central symbol of the suffering Jewish people. It is also an appeal addressed to Christians: to recognize in the crucified Jewish body that of their own Savior.

Can we speak of Christian faith in Chagall?

Martin Slaborn does not go so far as to make Chagall a Christian theologian. But he shows that Chagall reads the whole Bible (Old and New Testament), , that he created numerous stained-glass windows for Christian churches, and that certain of his canvases (such as The Exodus or the Binding of Isaac, with Jesus carrying his cross in the background) reveal a genuine theological reflection, independent and personal.

What should a Christian do with the reality of Jewish suffering in the face of historical antisemitism?

Martin Slaborn says it plainly: when a Jewish critic like John McBee writes in 2011 that centuries of Christian antisemitism have destroyed any possible awareness, one must first hear that pain, understand it, and pray as a Christian. Placing Christ on the cross amid the sufferings of his people, as Chagall does, reminds the Church of its Jewish roots and calls it to compassion, not self-defense.