Study for the Infant Jesus

The process of creating Luke 2:19 began with making studies in charcoal and chalk on paper. The first study was for the infant Jesus. The model for Jesus was 5-month-old Leona D., daughter of David and Jillian D. My wife Nora was present at the birth of Leona on September 1 of 2016. Jillian would visit with Leona and her siblings, Samson, 5 and Darlene, 3. Nora entertained Samson and Darlene while Jillian sat for me holding Leona while she napped after nursing. I would have 45 to 60 or 70 minutes to work before Leona would wake up.

Jillian holding Leona
Photo Copyright Nora Koch 2017

She remained very still while sleeping and it only took three sittings to get the drawing of Leona’s head to an acceptable degree of finish. Two or three more hours were required to sketch the hands and the halo. The halo was drawn using several high-keyed pastels with varying warm and cool tints; so, an element of painting was introduced into the drawing. I considered including halos around both the baby Jesus and Mary in the painting, but rejected the idea because I would have had to make the painting bigger to include both the halos and the narrative elements in the background.

The Infant Jesus 15 1/2 x 9 3/4
Charcoal and pastel on paper
Private collection
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

I sketched Jillian’s hands in the drawing from life. The gesture of Mary’s hands is an important supporting element to the theme and composition of the final painting. [See the painting here.] You will notice that the gesture of the hands in the painting is different than in the drawing. We went through at least four variations of hand design before settling on what is seen in the finished painting. In the end, Nora posed for the hands due to her being more readily available to model than Jillian was.

Detail, Luke 2:19 private collection
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

In my opinion, drawing hands is at least as difficult as drawing heads. The many parts need to relate to each other as correctly as the features in a face. The arrangement of parts in hands is varied, complex, subtle, and easy to distort. Likeness to the sitter is a secondary but not negligible concern. Designing hand gestures is a tricky business by itself, as is integrating them into the overall composition. What you imagine will look good may have real problems when posed. The problems here included avoiding awkward tangents with lines in the baby’s face; avoiding finger placement that obscured the baby’s features, avoiding any arrangement of Mary’s fingers that looked claw-like, and avoiding creating areas that combined intricate shape with strong value contrast. The latter has the potential to unbalance the composition, by causing the eye to linger too long on a secondary area of interest. On the positive side, I wanted a relaxed and natural gesture that expressed motherly tenderness and some tentativeness born of a sense of wonder.  The final painting of the hands was not done from studies, as were the heads of Mary and Jesus, but working directly from life on the canvas, painting over a previous conception. (The corrections were first made in grisaille (monochrome) to harmonize with the original underpainting, with color being added in a finishing layer. Notes on the overall painting technique will follow in a future post.)

Luke 2:19 part 5

Detail, Luke 2:19 private collection
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

The city itself is not intended to be an accurate representation of Jerusalem, although I took pains to represent the architecture as it would have been in that period. Jerusalem is not built on and around a steep bluff side by a lake. But that representation fits the vertical composition, and helps to convey a sense of the overbearing presence of worldly things and affairs. The city, seemingly burrowed into the very stones of the hillside, represents the efforts people put into vanity and material and power, things that shift and pass from one hand to another.

Detail Luke 2:19 private collection
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

A fishing boat is pulled up under the walls, and men are at work in it, tending to their business. Jesus called Peter and Andrew, also James and John, from their fishing boats pulled up on the shore: “And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers). And he saith to them: Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men. And they immediately leaving their nets, followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called. And they forthwith left their nets and father, and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-22)  Jesus could have chosen his followers anywhere but he chooses the foolish to confound the wise, and the weak to confound the strong. He does not go to the centers of power but to where the people live. He knows, and teaches, that real change occurs first in each human heart. Imagine a call so strong that it pulls you away from your livelihood, or from your father. Imagine how compelling it must have been. When have we ever felt such a compelling call in our own lives, and what did we do to answer it? 

Detail, Luke 2:19 private collection Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

One fishing boat is setting out into the middle of the lake, and two more are in the distance, where they approach the far shore. There is a settlement there and abundant husbandry at work on the broad hillside: fields, orchards and vineyards. The lake itself suggests the gulf between justice and injustice. There is a village at the bottom of the hill on the shore and clusters of buildings scattered across its breadth. This represents the fruitful world we are called to build: “In labor and in toil we worked night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you. Not as if we had not power: but that we might give ourselves a pattern unto you, to imitate us. For also when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:8-10) This world, no matter how fruitful, is penultimate. What we hope for is seen obscurely as if through the mists of rain on the horizon. "Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.” (Hebrews 11:1) The City of God, the heavenly kingdom, represented indistinctly as something vast and fantastic because of the hints we have been given about it: “But as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, [what no human mind has conceived, another translation reads] what things God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) And that “In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.” [emphasis added] (John 14:2) We know of it through these intimations given us by Jesus himself; it is the gift of a glimpse, and so it is represented as distant and indistinct. In reality it is only as distant as we separate ourselves from it. Admittedly, for most of us, that is considerable.

Detail Luke 2:19 Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

Luke 2:19 part 4

Detail, Luke 2:19 private collection
Copyright 2017 Peter Bougie

Just below the bridge, three figures are partially obscured by a rise in the landscape as they walk along the road. It is Jesus with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. It is one of my favorite stories in the New Testament. The disciples meet Jesus on the road, but they don’t recognize Him. They are discouraged about the recent events in Jerusalem, of which Jesus feigns ignorance. It isn’t until after inviting Him to stay with them for the evening, when He comes in and breaks the bread at supper and then vanishes that they recognize Him. We also may not recognize Jesus as readily as we think we will; but He is always truly present in the breaking of the bread, the Eucharist.

What if you were a traveler in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday? Say that the road you are traveling takes you within sight of Golgotha, but not so close that you can see clearly what is happening. You can tell it is one of those gruesome Roman executions; you despise and respect them at the same time. You see the shapes of the crosses with their victims attached rising above the heads of the people on the ground. There are the sounds of agitated voices. There are glints of sunlight reflected off metal spear tips, helmets and armor. You always shudder when you see those Roman soldiers. You don’t ever like to be near them. What if there’s some disturbance, and one of them takes it into his head to grab you? Good luck with that. There is movement in the crowd, milling around a centurion on horseback, stage managing the whole dirty affair. People come and go. More faint sounds of calls – cheers or jeers? There was a breeze before, but it has died. The sky is darkening, there is thunder, a faint smell of decay, and flies. You quicken your pace, and feel all the effort it takes to do so.

Detail, Luke 2:19 private collection
Copyright Peter Bougie 2-17

In the painting the crucifixion is indicated by the presence of crosses on the top of the mountain above the city. To the right, a derrick indicates that the place of death is also a place of industry. It suggests the two are related. In Jesus’ time, the Roman economy was based on slave labor. Slaves were commonplace. Servants are featured in many of Jesus’ parables. In our own time, industry and prosperity are still founded on cheap labor.

"Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them until the end." (John 13:1) But Easter Sunday follows Good Friday. St. Augustine summed up Jesus’ ultimate act of love for us in this passage from his Confessions: “The true Mediator…was the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who intervened between sinful mortals and the immortal Just One, himself mortal like men, and like God, just. Thus, since life and peace are the compensation for righteousness, he could, by a justice united with God, annul the death of sinners now justified, since he willed to share death with them.”

“Rightly then I have firm hope that you will heal all my infirmities through him who sits at your right hand and intercedes for us.”

Continued in the next post.

Scripture quotations from Douay Rheims

Luke 2:19 part 3

Detail, Luke 2:19
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

In the center middle-ground Jesus is shown teaching the crowds. You can take your pick of gospel scenes in which Jesus is teaching or otherwise dealing with crowds of people. The Beatitudes come to mind, as put forth in the gospel of Matthew. In Luke, this is the sermon on the plain, and contains four blessings or beatitudes, and four woes. “Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now; for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation. Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh; for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:20-26) People sit in various attitudes of listening; a group is on the move away from the group listening to Jesus. Jesus was always amid the movements of life, but He was not swept up in them. Jesus acted among the people, but only after he had prayed in solitude. Could the group moving away be the disciples who left Jesus during the Bread of Life discourse? It was a teaching that many found too hard to accept; but it is at the root of the Catholic belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Jesus reiterates multiple times in the face of objections from his disciples that He is literally the Bread of Life, and all but the twelve leave Him. Jesus asked the twelve if they would leave too. Peter’s reply suggests he might leave if there was anywhere else to go – “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) - and that he understands that there isn’t. Is it possible that some of those who left returned later? Recall the Parable of the Two Sons. “A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first he said: Son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answering, said: I will not. But afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went.” (Matthew 21 28-32) Also, one among the twelve who stayed had now set his heart against Jesus.

A figure stands between the departing group and the entrance to the bridge, gesturing toward the bridge and inviting those toward whom he is turned to follow, where Jesus is entering Jerusalem riding on the colt of an ass. The crowds are adoring Him and waving palm fronds. Soldiers lounge, bored, at their duty posts. One leans over a parapet on the left, as if he has spotted someone in the crowd, or maybe he is trying to get a closer look at Jesus. “Is this that Messiah guy? He’s riding a yearling ass. What’s up with that?” A man fishes from the bridge, his glance following Jesus. His friend, with legs dangling over the side, waves a palm frond. Because some people would rather go fishing, even though Jesus has come to Jerusalem. At least they have noticed Him. Where the bridge meets the wall along the river, a man appears to be ecstatic, having to be restrained by his friends from falling. Perhaps he is like the woman that anointed Jesus with oil while He dined with Simon the Pharisee. Jesus said to him, “Her many sins are forgiven; for she loved much; but he to whom little is forgiven loves little.” (Luke 7:47) Or perhaps he is the Prodigal Son, who, welcomed home by his father after squandering his father’s wealth, was also forgiven much.

Detail, Luke 2:19
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

Continued in the next post.

All scripture quotations from Douay Rheims

Luke 2:19, continued

Luke 2:19, continued

Detail, Luke 2:19
Copyright  Peter Bougie 2017

Mary wears a red veil. My primary reason for using a red veil instead of blue was for the striking effect of the color note. It makes for a strong focal point around Mary and the baby Jesus and commands attention. I have read that in Eastern Catholic and Russian Icon traditions the red veil was typical, and had a name: maphorion. Upon further reading I found there is disagreement about the meaning assigned to the colors blue and red; one for divinity, the other for humanity. In the painting Mary wears both colors.  The painting strives to show Mary’s humanity through her motherhood, so if red is the color of humanity, it is the dominant color here.

Detail, Luke 2:19
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

Mary’s expression and gestures are intended to be visual indications of her pondering, and of her great love for her son Jesus. I wanted to be sure that Mary’s hands had the look of hands that did manual work. Her hands probably look older than they should, compared to her face. I think this also ties into another theme going on in the painting, of timelessness, intended to represent Mary pondering over her lifetime the words and actions of Jesus, and to refer to God’s view of human events; “But of this one thing do not be ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

Thorns are symbolic of the Passion. They are intended to provoke a bit of squeamishness in their proximity to the baby Jesus. The thorns depicted are from a wild hawthorn (courtesy of John and Deb’s farm), western Wisconsin, North America. They are not exagerrated, they are really that long, very sturdy and quite sharp.

Detail, Luke 2:19
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

The roses recall the scripture verse Isaiah 11:1: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.” Roses are associated with apparitions of Mary, such as at Guadalupe, and with many saints, including the Carmelite St. Therese of Lisieux – St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

Detail Luke 2:19
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

The scenes in the middle ground and the background represent the life and public ministry of Jesus, and His teachings, and as such the focus of Mary’s ‘pondering’ throughout her life. Jesus speaks with a Roman centurion. I had several reasons for including a depiction of a centurion. They commanded large groups of men in the Roman army, men who were skilled and experienced in brutal, close quarters combat. Centurions had to be very tough, very smart men – maybe not the type we associate with gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Centurions are present in several scenes in the gospels. A Roman centurion displays faith which amazes Jesus in a story featured in both Matthew and Luke. The centurion asks that Jesus heal his servant, and Jesus agrees to do so and indicates that He will accompany him to the place where the servant lies. But the centurion replies, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed.” (Matthew 8:8, also Luke 7:6) We repeat these words at every Mass as we prepare to receive the Eucharist, substituting the words ‘my soul’ for ‘my servant.’ The centurion holds a sword, which recalls the prophecy of Simeon to Mary; “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.” The sword piercing Mary’s heart refers to opposition Jesus met with in many places, and to His Passion. The latter part of the phrase refers to the responses that people had to Jesus; He brought out a response of latent goodness from some, and of hatred from others. People long for justice, for meaning in their lives, and for the truth about their existence; they also are resistant to and harbor bitterness against the very same things. The centurion holds the sword across his breast, as if taking an oath. In fact, the word sacrament – an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual divine grace – comes from the Latin word sacramentum, which refers to an oath taken by Roman soldiers to defend the republic, and later the emperor. The figure of the centurion is also generally representative of the Roman state, which crucified Jesus. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, the centurion presiding at the execution bears witness to Jesus: “Now the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake, and the things that were done, were sore afraid, saying: Indeed, this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54, also Mark 15:39)

Continued in the next post.
Scripture quotations from Douay Rheims 

Luke 2:19

Luke 2:19, Private Collection
Oil on canvas, 36 x 24
Copyright Peter Bougie 2017

Luke Chapter 2

And it came to pass, that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. 2This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. 3And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: because he was of the house and family of David, 5To be enrolled with Mary, his espoused wife, who was with child. 6And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. 7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and Angels

8And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flocks. 9And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone around about them; and they feared with a great fear. 10And the angel said to them: “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people; 11For, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. 12And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying:

14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.”

15And it came to pass, after the angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another: “Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord hath shewed to us.” 16And they came with haste; and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. 17And seeing, they understood of the word that had been spoken to them concerning this child. 18And all that heard, wondered; and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. 19But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. 20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

From “The Passion of the Infant Christ”, by Caryll Houselander:

“While Christ remained hidden in Mary, his rest was a tremendous activity; he was making her into himself, making himself from her. From her eyes he was making the eyes that would weep over Jerusalem, that would shine upon the wildflowers, that would close in death and open in the morning of Resurrection. From her hands he was making the hands that would heal and raise the dead and be nailed to the cross. From her heart he was making the heart whose love would redeem the world.”

“But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

The painting shown above takes its title from that scripture verse in Luke’s infancy narrative. Christ is shown as an infant, dependent on His mother Mary for everything required to sustain life. In this fact is revealed the profound love of God for his creation, humankind, and His profound humility, in that He came to live among us as one of us: He “emptied himself [italics added], taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men”. (Phillipians 2:7) God became a zygote; God emptied Himself into the form of an infant in the arms of its mother.

Mary and Jesus are shown resting in a decrepit setting, indicative of the spiritual condition of human beings due to sin. The basic condition for sin is our preference of our own will over God’s. Everything we do is subject to temporal laws of decline and dissolution. God came to live among us in these conditions. He had to grow up from helpless infancy like anybody else, although He is divine. “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27, also Matthew 19:26)

Continued in the next post.
All scripture quotations from Douay Rheims