"The picture depicted Christ, who has just been taken from the cross. I believe that the painters are usually in the habit of depicting Christ, whether on the cross or taken from the cross, as still retaining a shade of extraordinary beauty on his face: that beauty they strive to preserve even in his moments of greatest agony. In Rogoshin's picture there was no trace of beauty. It was a faithful representation of the dead body of a man who has undergone unbearable torments before the crusifixion, been wounded, tortured, beaten by the guards, bean by the people, when he carried the cross and fell under its weight, and, at last, has only just been taken from the cross- that is, still retaining a great deal of warmth and life; rigor mortis has not yet set in, so that there is still a look of suffering on the face of the dead man, as though he were still feeling it (that has been well caught by the artist); on the other hand, the face has not been spared in the least; it is nature itself, and, indeed, any many's corpse could look like that after such suffering. I know that the Christian Church laid it down in the first few centuries of its existence that Christ really did suffer and that the Passion was not symbolical. His body was therefore fully and entirely subject to the laws of nature. In the picture the face is terribly smashed with blows, swollen, covered with terrible, swollen, and blood-stained bruises bruises, the eyes open and squinting; the large, open whites of the eyes have a sort of dead and glassy glint. But, strange to say, as one looks at the dead and glassy glint. But, strange to say, as one looks at the dead body of this tortured man, one cannot help asking oneself the peculiar and interesting question: if such a corpse (and it must have been just like that) was seen by all His disciples, by His future chief apostles, by the women that followed Him and stood by the cross, by all who believed in Him and worshiped Him, then how could they possibly have believed, as they looked at the corpse, that that martyr would rise again? Here one cannot help being struck by the idea that if death is so horrible and if the laws of nature are so powerful, then how can they be overcome? How can they be overcome when even He did not conquer them. He who overcame nature during His lifetime and whom nature obey, who said Talitha cumi! and the damsel arose, who cried Lazarus come forth! and the dead man came forth? Looking at that picture, you get the impression of nature as some enormous, implacable, and dumb beast, or, to put it more correctly, much more correctly, though it may seem strange, as some huge engine of the latest design, which has senselessly seized, cut to pieces, and swallowed up- impassively and unfeelingly- a great and priceless Being, a Being worth the whole of nature and all its laws, worth the entire earth, (which was perhaps created solely for the coming of that Being! The picture seems to give expression to the idea of a dark, insolent, and senselessly eternal power, to which everything is subordinated, and this idea is suggested to you unconsciously. The people surrounded the dead man, none of whom is shown in the picture, must have been overwhelmed by a feeling of terrible anguish and dismay on that evening which had shattered all their hopes and almost all their beliefs at one fell blow. They must have parted in a state of most dreadful terror, though each of them carried away within him a mighty thought which could be never wrested from him. And if , on the eve, of the crusifixion, the Master could have seen what He would loo, like when taken from the cross, would He have mounted the cross and died as He did? This question took, you can't help asking yourself as you look at the picture."
I have never given this any thought, always considering the paintings of Jesus Christ as a guess of what He might have looked like. but in all I've seen, It's true they are not portraying the truth. Basically denying most of His humanity. very interesting. He would've been battered! Anyway, He didn't "overcome" the laws of nature because He didn't want to. It was his choice.
But also, that's interesting to think that nature (and I'm thinking of Nature as a creature) was created of the sole purpose of killing Jesus Christ. To show humanity who Christ is. At first I thought of this as, a fraud. Honestly. But further thinking led me to actually believe differently. Nature was created to show humanity, for us to understand, how much Christ loved us. And as Dostoevsky mentions, if He would've seen Himself on the cross...of course He did! He already knew, He is God Himself- He knew foresaw everything- and yet He still did it. Seeing the future only added to the misery.
Also, Jesus' worshipers at the time- Imagine how they would've felt! What loss and disappointment. Even the disciples were slow to believe. Very, very interesting.
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