Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 -- James Ensor
1 Ride on! Ride on in majesty!
Hark! All the tribes hosanna cry:
O Saviour meek, pursue thy road
with palms and scattered garments strowed.
Voices United 127
If it were possible to be tele-transported to distant lands, avoiding the discomfort of cramped travel and the nasty carbon footprint, I would immerse myself in thought-provoking and soul-stirring art exhibits.I often feel pangs of loss when I see what's unfolding in museums and galleries hither and yon.
The latest to pique the sin of covetousness explores the work of James Ensor, a Belgian artist of the second half of the 19th century. According to a New York Times article:
The case for Ensor’s prescience is being made this month in Antwerp, Belgium, where several simultaneous exhibitions are exploring the artist’s fascination with masks and masquerade as part of the 75th anniversary commemorations of Ensor’s death. Although he isn’t an international household name like his contemporaries Claude Monet, Edward Munch or Vincent van Gogh, at home in Belgium, Ensor is revered as a national treasure.
I have long been fascinated by an Ensor painting called Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 and over the years I used it in worship during Holy Week. It has been described as a parody but I've always considered it an invitation into the drama of that strange procession with Jesus on a donkey making his way into Jerusalem, asking how he might enter our reality. It is a challenge to find Christ in the midst of the crowd.
Christ's Entry is huge in scale, measuring 2.53 m × 4.31 m (8 ft 4 in × 14 ft 2 in). It was so large that Ensor was unable to work on the whole painting at the same time, nailing part to the walls and allowing the rest to drape on the ground. As with so many artists Ensor was a visionary and an eccentric. Ride on, Ride on in Majesty.
James Ensor’s “The Skeleton Painter” (1896), which is on display in “In Your “Wildest Dreams: Ensor Beyond Impressionism” at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, in Antwerp, Belgium.
K.M.S.K.A.
This must be where the idea for "Where's Waldo?" came from !
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this blog entry, I read more on Ensor and the retrospective exhibit in Belgium. I would love to see this work in its original size, so I could make out all the expressions on the masks. One critic said the masks actually represented the real characters of the subjects. -KB
ReplyDeleteYou haven't heard of the lesser known Waldo of Narareth, Judy?...shades of Life of Brian! While seeing Ensor's monumental work in a book is intriguing I would agree, Kathy, that having the immersive experience of standing before it and attending to the detail would be marvelous.
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