Christ at the Pool of Bethesda

Origin: Jean Restout, French (1692-1768)
Date: 1725
Medium: Oil on canvas
Ackland Fund
87.15

The soft, clear colors of Restout's Christ at the Pool of Bethesda, give it an impressionistic quality which would dominate French art two centuries later. In this preparation for a larger painting, Restout employs the classical style which privileges historical authenticity, balance and symmetrical composition. According to the scriptures, Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem during one of the Jewish feast days and stopped at the pool the Hebrew people called Bethesda. There, the blind, lame, paralyzed and diseased would gather, waiting for the moving of the water. Periodically, an angel would appear and stir up the pool. Whoever stepped into the water first, after it had been stirred, would be healed.

Jesus was surprised to find at Bethesda a man he recognized who had been ill some 38 years. When he inquired of the man whether he wanted to be made well, the man replied that he had made many attempts to be the first to lower himself into the pool, but that others had thwarted his efforts by beating him to the healing waters. Then Jesus said to the man, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And the man immediately was made well, picked up his bed and walked. (John: 5: 1-9)