Johann Boeckhorst
Flemish, 1604-1668
The Triumphant Christ Forgiving Penitent Sinners
oil on canvas, c. 1660
Ackland Fund, 72.1.1
Even Christians familiar with their Bible might be puzzled about what is
going on in this painting by the 17th-century artist Johann Boeckhorst.
Christ is easily recognizable in the center, holding the cross, but who
are the aged king, the richly dressed woman, and the other figures
clustering around him?
In fact, this painting does not represent any Biblical story. It is a
vision of repentance and absolution and touches on an issue hotly debated
between Catholics and Protestants in the 17th century. Working in Antwerp
(in what is now Belgium), Boeckhorst was close to the frontier of Catholic
territory, in an age when the division between Catholic and Protestant
was as intensely felt as that between capitalist and communist
today.
The nature of repentance and forgiveness of sin was an issue hotly debated
between the two sides. Was confession of one's sins, followed by rituals
of penitence, a divinely ordered sacrament, as Catholics believed? Or was
it, as Protestants held, a dangerous distraction from the real issue of
personal faith in God's mercy, independent of any penitential
action?
The people surrounding Christ in Boeckhorst's painting are all Biblical
figures cited by Catholic writers as examples of the sacrament of penance.
The old king is David, whose psalms expressed repentance of his sins.
Next to him, the repentant thief, who was crucified with Christ, kneels on
his cross. The richly dressed woman is Mary Magdalen, who is said to have
ended her life as a hermit mourning for her past sins.
In the background, Saint Peter buries his face in his cloak, weeping at
his denial of Christ. The young man in front of Peter is almost certainly
the Prodigal Son, reduced to poverty and leaning on a swineherd's staff.
At the far left, behind King David, the Virgin Mary and St. John the
Evangelist are witnesses to Christ's forgiveness of these repentant
sinners.
The painting does not pretend to represent an event that happened in a
particular place and time. Christ appears together with Peter, Mary
Magdalen and the thief, who were his contemporaries on earth, with King
David, who lived centuries earlier, and with the Prodigal Son, who is a
character in a parable and not a "historical" figure at all.
The setting is vague; we see only a strip of bare ground. Christ's feet
rest on the globe of the world and on a serpent, symbolic of sin. Angelic
children offer him palm branches and laurel crowns symbolizing martyrdom
and victory. King David and the other figures surrounding Christ are
likewise symbolic, examples of sin and repentance.
Although the painting illustrates an abstract idea, divine forgiveness of
the repentant sinner, it is by no means abstract in appearance. The
figures are solid and real, their flesh and musculature vividly detailed.
Like the visions experienced and described by many Catholic saints of the
time, Boeckhorst's painting is both symbolic and intensely real. It seems
to invite viewers to fill the space between the Thief and Mary Magdalen,
kneeling before Christ to acknowledge their sins and receive
absolution.
Issues
to Consider