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Artists and Composers on Jesus
Oh God of heaven, pity us! Oh Lord Jesus Christ, pray for Thy people! Deliver us at the fit time. Call together Thy far-
Albert Durer (1471-
My soul I resign to God, my body to the earth, and my worldly possessions to my nearest of kin … In your passage through this life remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
Michelangelo (1475-
The best of the examples that Leonardo has left us, is the Last Supper, in which he has represented the Apostles in places suitable to them, but our Saviour is in the midst of all, in the most honorable, having no figure near enough to press or incommode him. His attitude is grave, his arms are in a loose, free posture, to show the greater grandeur; while the Apostles appear in agitation, by their vehement desire to know which of them should betray their master.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-
Written in Ruben' s own hand in a Latin manuscript and quoted by Matthew Pilkington in A Dictionary of Painters: from the revival of the art to the present period (London: Johnson 1805), p. 620.
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_general_dictionary_of_painters.html?id=WgHuAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
I.N.J (In Nomini Jesu) "In the name of Jesus"
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-
What I Was As An Artist,
Seemed To Me Of Some Importance
While I Lived:
But What I Really Was As A Believer
In Christ Jesus,
Is The Only Thing Of Importance
To Me Now.
John Bacon (1740-
Socrates and Jesus have been my models.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-
Lamentation over the death of the Son of God may arouse in the spectator true faith and repentance. May this painting, begun in tears for my own and only son, and finished in grief for the loss of my dear brother, draw tears from the eyes of Him who shed not only tears, but blood, in order that His death might be our life. Such aim have I in my art, without which it would seem idle, indeed blasphemous.
Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-
Thou glorious Christ, to how many shameful actions must Thou lend Thy image? Thyself the most awful monument to mankind’s degradation, Thy image is set up by them as if they said "Behold! We have trampled with impious feet upon God’s most perfect creation".’
Franz Schubert (1797-
The Bible brought me to see I was lost in sin and had no power to save myself. It told me the door of mercy was open, and salvation was to be freely had. It showed me the wonderful sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and through His precious blood, my sins are all washed away.
Thomas Sidney Cooper (1803-
https://archive.org/details/cloudofwitnesses00nortrich
Through Christ alone, through resigned suffering in God, salvation and rescue comes to us.
Franz Liszt (1811-
It was otherwise with the Christian religion. Its founder was not wise, but divine; his teaching was the deed of free-
Richard Wagner (1813-
http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/prose/wlpr0126.htm
When Christ entered Jerusalem, and the people on His passage cried out, ‘Hosannah! Son of David! the disciples said unto Him, ‘Master, bid them be silent,’ but He answered,‘if men are silent, stones will speak’ — Lapides clamabunt. Well, a choral mass must symbolise these words; it must be an edifice in stone, austere, grave, massive, and solemn.
Charles Gounod (1818-
There is nothing so great or so goodly in creation, but that it is a mean symbol of the gospel of Christ, and of the things He has prepared for them that love Him.
John Ruskin (1819-
I feel very strongly the beginning of the end, and think it a blessing to look forward to eternal rest. What is the whole miserable earthly life worth in comparison to one single glance at the sinless Holy Saviour ! He alone — and surely nothing else — is the goal of our intense longing, whether we know it or not. If I can become the last chorister of heaven, I shall rejoice with holiest joy!
Jenny Lind (1820-
I know no other artist who is so outspoken and declared a follower of our Lord as myself. I don't boast of my excellence — only of my earnestness.
William Holman Hunt (1827-
http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/whh/shadlow/pilot.html
He got stoned … from the point of view of people who saw nothing of His divinity — only His agitation. That’s all I’d have seen if I’d been there.
John Millais (1829-
You see, the powers from which all truly great composers like Mozart, Schubert, Bach and Beethoven drew their inspirations is the same power that enabled Jesus to do his miracles.
Johannes Brahms (1833-
The Bible is Christ, for the Old Testament leads to that culmination. . .. Christ alone … has affirmed eternal life as the most important certainty, the infinity of time, the futility of death, the necessity and purpose of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as an artist greater than all other artists, scorning marble and clay and paint, working in the living flesh. In other words, this peerless artist, scarcely conceivable with the blunt instrument of our modern, nervous and obtuse brains, made neither statues nor paintings nor books. He maintained in no uncertain terms that he made…living men, immortals.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-
Letter to Emile Bernard. Written 23 June 1888 in Arles. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-
Reward for information leading to the apprehension of —
JESUS CHRIST
Wanted — For Sedition, Criminal Anarchy —
Vagrancy, and Conspiring to Overthrow the
Established Government.
Dresses poorly, said to be a carpenter by trade, ill-
Art Young (1866-
My declaration of faith: I bow down before something which, if you want, one might call God -
http://www.adherents.com/people/pm/Edvard_Munch.html
Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live in is to love -
The more one separates oneself from the canons of the Christian church, the further one distances oneself from the truth … Art is made of itself, and one cannot create upon a creation, even though we are ourselves graftings of Jesus Christ.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-
Through Christ, the wonderful knowledge has been bestowed on us that this God, who’s beyond Time, to whom nothing out of time or space clings, that He who is completely different from everything and is contained in Himself -
Olivier Messiaen (1908-
Another experience that was very difficult for me, that took a long time for me to be able to deal with, was reflecting on Christ’s words as he is tried and put to the cross. He says, ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.’ It took me a long time, and a lot of reflection, to be able to see that I think what Christ was saying there was, as he was saying to these people who tortured me and others, that they don’t understand that the man or woman they are torturing is their own sister, or their own brother.
Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1931-
