Friday, March 25, 2005

Good Friday - Miscellany

Quid est veritas?
I was amused by the irony of an election poster today. It's part of the left-wing 'Olive' coalition and depicts two of their politicians with the caption La Verità? Eccola! In other words - The Truth? Here it is.
Ecce Homo
An unusual Ecce Homo by Nuno Gonçalves. (Mid 15th Cent.)
A very different (and plaintive) one from about the same era by Antonello Da Messina.
I can't decide what to make of Caravaggio's Ecco Homo - something ambiguous about it.
With Hieronymus Bosch one finds the 'minor' characters more interesting.
And from the British library, a page from the Sforza Book of Hours.
From my Spiritual Reading
I see thee, O good Jesus, nailed to the cross, crowned with thorns, given gall to drink, pierced with the lance, and for my sake dislocated in all thy limbs upon the gibbet of the cross. How greatly thou hast loved me, since whereas thou art thyself most good, for me thou hast desired to be reckoned among the wicked; being thyself most beautiful, for me thou hast desired to be accounted as a leper and the last of men; being thyself strong and powerful, for me thou didst allow yourself to be executed like a thief; being thyself wise, for me thou didst desire to be the butt of mocking words and gestures from those who stood around the cross, and so all that was within or without thee caused thee suffering for my sake. Alas! that head, an object of awe to angelic powers, is pierced with the sharpest thorns; the face on which the angels desire to gaze is spat upon by vile mouths; the hands which fashioned heaven and earth are pierced with sharp nails; the heart which knows the secret things of God is laid bare when the side is opened; the belly from which flow living waters is contracted with hunger and pain; the back which supports heaven and earth is beaten and torn with stripes; the reins which extinguish all impurity are are stripped and scourged; the legs which have wrought pleasure for men are held fast by the points of the nails; the soul which from the first moment of its creation had full fruition of the Godhead, is sorrowful unto death.
From a 'Meditation to Christ Crucified' by The Monk of Farne (Christ Crucified & Other Meditations, edited by David Hugh Farmer)

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