Truth Before Pilate | Collapsed
A Dadaist Midrash of Christ Before Pilate
Reader Note: While this is not inherently ecologically oriented I wanted to share a piece of art I created as a final project for the History of Arts and Theology course I took last year in light of this coming Sunday’s readings in the lectionary are from John 18:33-37 for the celebration of Christ the King. My approach to creating this piece of art is firmly rooted in the theological methodology and metaphor of composting that I have been cultivating both in my academic context and here in Compost Christianity.
The text below is from the paper/analysis that accompanied the creation of this piece.
“Pilate saith unto him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”1
Introduction
The author of the Gospel according to John, like the authors of the Synoptic Gospels, details the moments leading up to the condemnation and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth at the hands of the Roman authorities, but unlike the other three Gospels its record includes the above question uttered by Pilate. In John’s narrative, no sooner than these words roll off Pilate’s tongue do we see him abruptly turning back to the crowds once again. This sudden shift in the narrative leaves me wondering whether Pilate even gave Jesus a chance to answer him. Like many of the stories in our sacred texts we are left to wrestle with the ambiguities and attempt to excavate what might be going on between the lines of these verses. I like to think that this question arose from somewhere deep within Pilate only to burst forth from his mouth before he even had the chance to bridle his tongue.2 Could it be that the presence of this lowly backwoods carpenter somehow left Pilate utterly undone? And what does his question regarding “truth” have to do with us today nearly two millennia removed from the encounter that generated Pilate’s unanticipated inquiry in the first place? These are some of the questions that undergird my attempt to artistically excavate what lies just beneath the surface of this narrative through the creation of a digital mixed media art piece (see above) that places Mihaly Munkacsy’s painting Christ Before Pilate in conversation with various academic voices and contemporary artistic methods as a means of exploring the theme of “collapsed time” that is common to the history of Christian iconography
Art as Midrash
Biblical Scholar Dr. Vanessa Lovelace defines midrash as the “Jewish mode of interpretation that not only engages the words of the text, behind the text, and beyond the text, but also focuses on each letter, and the words left unsaid by each line.”3 Despite the fact that the formal use of “midrash” as an interpretive method for engaging scripture did not remain central to the way Christianity engaged with the Hebrew canon, and its own developing set of sacred texts as it moved away from its Jewish roots, it does offers us a helpful lens for understanding the ways that even art can function to expand our interpretations of scripture and its narratives. Oftentimes we see in within the visual representations of some scriptural events the artist will add details that are not present in the textual information provided.4 The inclusion of these details is not accurate as far as the text itself goes but seeks to expand the viewer's understanding and provide theological interpretations for the events they are seeking to depict. One such example is the illuminated text by Robert Boyvin in the Book of Hours that shows Pilate not only at Jesus’ trial, but also at the events of Jesus being nailed to the cross and his subsequent crucifixion.5 Colum Hourihane notes that while iconographers seem to be “more comfortable in dealing with subjects that can be linked to a textual correlate” that oftentimes these iconographers “go slightly beyond what the canonical states to enhance it. Such small liberties sometimes make perfect sense as the original basis is there. This is even more so in the case of a slightly undefined or nebulous textual source.”6 These artistic liberties offer the chance for the artist to expand the depicted narratives beyond their canonical bounds and provide fresh insight into the texts themselves by what I believe can be understood as a type of “visual midrash.” My hope is that my piece is both a type of visual midrash and an invitation beyond the bounds of space and time.
Beyond Space and Time
While Mihaly Munkacsy’s painting Christ Before Pilate is not technically iconography in the strict historical or artistic sense and does exist within the timeline of art that we have discussed during our class, I chose to be in dialogue with it for multiple reasons. The two primary reasons being that 1. I find Munkacsy’s artistic depiction of this event particularly interesting and 2. I wanted to select a piece of art that existed outside of the established historical timeline for this course in an effort to show how the idea of collapsed time is not itself bound to a particular artistic milieu in Christian history, but rather can exist in all forms of religious art as potential sites for encounter with the Divine. Elizabeth Zelensky and Lela Gilbert summarize this idea well when they wrote “as windows into the eternal realm, icons exist beyond time and space, thus they are not defined as belonging to one or another epoch…” arguing that “an icon… transports the viewer into the heavenly realm and foreshadows a time when all the faithful will be transformed into glorified humanity.”7 While both Zelensky and Gilbert are talking specifically about the Orthodox perspective of traditional Christian iconography, we find many contemporary arguments for understanding other forms of art as also being vehicles for the experience of “collapsed time.” These arguments range from the “iconographic” nature of Byzantine architecture and how it brings both “past and future events… together in the eternal present” to the ways in which even photography can be “iconic” in that it crosses the space between the “worlds of materiality and spirituality.”8 It is with this in mind that I have sought to implement the tools of contemporary artistic methods in an attempt to build, so to speak, a “window into heaven.”9
Truth Before Pilate | Collapsed
I have struggled for many years to consider myself an artist after having much of my artistic spark extinguished by the dual forces of adults in my life who saw no economic value in such practices, and by growing up in an area functionally devoid of opportunities to explore artistic mediums or hone artistic capabilities. While generally seeing myself as someone who is creative, I have only recently begun exploring potential artistic endeavors more seriously and have found myself quite comfortable in the realm of digital mixed media, collage, and compost art that draws influence from Dadaism (broadly).10 I will now offer a brief explanation and interpretation of my piece Truth Before Pilate: Collapsed.
Explanation: Truth Before Pilate | Collapsed is a mixed media art piece that uses the techniques of composite and collage art to bring Mihaly Munkacsy’s Christ Before Pilate, and its scriptural correlation into our present context by the integration of individuals photographed during the January 6th riots at the U.S. Capital. I drew on this event in particular because of how the very forces behind it, that is to say christofascism, have shown themselves to be in full alignment with the powers of Empire as they seek to wield “truth” for their own gain.11 The supposed people of the cross have become the builders of an endless amount of crosses, and thus Christ is crucified in this country every day in the lives of the poor and the oppressed.
Interpretation: In this piece Christ and Pilate represent two systems, the Kingdom of God and that of the forces of the Empire (Babylon, Rome, America.) Christ is bound and yet boundless. He is transfigured in this moment standing in the fullness of his Trinitarian existence, his thoughts are clear and bright, and truth seems to drip from his mouth in an almost honey like fashion. His words are sticky and sweet but leave Pilate fragmented, who also finds himself transfigured in this moment. That is to say that for the first time he is most fully himself before Christ, aware that he is nothing more than a double minded and confused man. Pilate cannot help but ask “What is Truth?” His words are shaky, he hopes that the Nazarene does not hear him. He keeps his eyes to the floor so that he cannot read the writing on the walls. Pilate does not understand but he knows that this man’s kingdom is somehow beyond the bounds of his little corner of Rome, the entire Empire, and even the Cosmos. This atheist Jew is somehow Lord of all, but he cannot speak it even though deep calls to deep. He could never utter such heresies. Pilate has all the power in the world to kill this man, but the Nazarene speaks with a graciousness that makes his bones weak. Despite the crowds and their blood lust filled shouts Pilate finds himself alone with this man and he has never been so afraid.
Conclusion
While Truth Before Pilate | Collapsed is by all means imperfect, I believe that shows that the intersections between historical Christian art and contemporary artistic methods can prove to be fertile soil for the work of both wrestling with the questions that lie just beneath the surface of these sacred stories, and for cultivating the experiences that can lead toward transformation as we encounter the presence of God in unexpected ways. I found it quite fitting that I finished both his art piece and its corresponding paper on Good Friday. I have a complicated relationship with the liturgical life of the Church, but always seem to find myself drawn back to this day, and this subject, seemingly across space and time. There is so much here in this text to explore, far more than I could ever adequately highlight in such a short paper or exhaust in a single piece of art, but I hope that I have made a strong case for seeing how art can be both a visual midrash and site for the experience of the iconographic notion of collapsed time.
John 18:38 KJV
“Deep calleth unto deep.”— Psalm 42:7 KJV.
Wilda C. Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 40.
Hourihane, Colum, “Beyond the Bible: Case Study in Pontius Pilate and How His Role Was
Extended in the Passion.” The Living Pulpit (Online) 22, no. 1 (Spring 2013).
Ibid, 32.
Ibid, 30-31.
Elizabeth Zelensky and Lela Gilbert, Windows to Heaven: Introducing Icons to Protestants and Catholics (Grand Rapids (Mich.): Brazos Press, 2005), 30-34.
Freeland, Guy. “Time, Architecture and the Byzantine Iconographic Programme.” Phronema 4 (1989): 75–88.
Elizabeth Zelensky and Lela Gilbert, Windows to Heaven: Introducing Icons to Protestants and Catholics (Grand Rapids (Mich.): Brazos Press, 2005), 30-34.
Artland Editors, “What Is Dadaism, Dada Art, or a Dadaist?” Artland Magazine, last modified February 20, 2023, accessed April 7, 2023, https://magazine.artland.com/what-is-dadaism/.
Dorothee Sölle, The Window of Vulnerability: A Political Spirituality (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1990), 133-141.