“The Crucifixion”, 1627, Francisco de Zurbarán, The Art Institute of Chicago, Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund.
When people first saw this painting they though it was a sculpture. I remember experiencing the same illusion when I saw this painting in the exhibition “The Sacred made Real” at London’s National Gallery in 2009. The dead Christ emerges from darkness. A few streams of blood are just visible on his side to the right, but there is no wound as yet. This is Christ just after his death when darkness covered the land. In a manner peculiar to Zurbarán’s circle, the feet are nailed separately, so that the figure does not appear to be hanging on the cross but rather standing before us. Love, not nails, held Christ on the cross. This oft repeated insight is expressed here very powerfully. His is no ordinary death. Here is a death embraced willingly by the Son of God, so that, in him death itself is conquered by love.
The Catholic Chaplaincy serves the students and staff of the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University.
The Catholic Chaplaincy is also a parish of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh (the Parish of St Albert the Great) and all Catholic students and staff are automatically members of this parish.
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St Albert's Catholic Chaplaincy is part of the English Province of the Order of Preachers, a charity registered in England and Wales (231192) and in Scotland (SC039062).