Art Attack

No not anything to do with the First Aid training we had on the first day back at work but a challenging work of art featured on Easter Day's order of service, from the church at Morebattle.



Mary Magdalene by Gian Girolamo Savoldo

"There's something wrong here, even though it takes some looking to find it. The inconsistancy is at the left edge of the painting, at the horizon. Looking there, we see the glow of the sunrise in the east. And of course the sun should rise in the east but what should not happen is the flood of bright, white light that strikes Mary's shimmering robe from the right. Savoldo knows enough about painting to avoid such a mistake. And in this case, the discrepancy is not a mistake at all. The light that shines upon Mary more intensely than the sun is meant to announce the presence of the risen, glorified Messiah. The moment shown here may be the moment when He calls her by name, and she recognises her Lord. But there's something else interesting that Savoldo hs done with Mary's glance. When you view the painting hanging on a wall, it's impossible to escape the realisation that Mary is glancing directly at the spot occupied by the viewer. Then you realise that Savoldo has issued you a challenge. He implicitly asks you whether Jesus so fully inhabits your life that someone would see Him in you, and hear in your witness a call as powerful and important as if the Creator of the universe had called them by name."