“Crucifixion”, Tintoretto, 1568, Church of San Cassiano, Venice.
Tintoretto shows Christ crucified on waste ground, where only weeds and brambles grow. It seems to be on a ridge or high ground, beyond which Roman soldiers stand with their spears set against the evening sky like a fence. With them we look up towards Christ on the cross. A red cloth is strewn directly before our eyes. It must surely be Christ’s seamless garment, now discarded carelessly among the weeds, where it might become soaked with his blood. Above it, a red Roman flag is held up by a soldier. By this simple juxtaposition, the seamless garment and the Roman flag, the spilling of Christ’s blood on the cross is set against Rome’s military might. To the left, Mary, his mother, has collapsed. The beloved disciple is with her. In fact, Tintoretto also painted Christ’s resurrection for the same sanctuary area of the church and these two works are so positioned that the beloved disciple is pointing to the Risen Christ. So it is that even in the darkness of this scene, the one who “first saw and believed” points us to faith in the resurrection. Unusually, it is a ladder and not the cross that is at the centre of the composition. But there is a man on the ladder and our eyes are drawn to the parchment he holds which bears Pilate’s inscription I.N.R.I. He holds it almost at the centre of the whole composition so that we do not miss it. “I.N.R.I.” are the four Latin capitals of the title “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. From it your eye climbs the ladder to the face of Christ as he looks at what they are doing. In this work two kinds of power and authority are juxtaposed. The inscription, the wall of spears and the red standard are signs of the military power and authority of Rome. Set against this, we have the gentle face of Christ, who humbled himself and to accept “even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). St Paul goes on to say, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name” (Phil 2:9). There are two raised arms. One bears Pilate’s statement of who Jesus is. The other points us to the fullness of faith in Risen Jesus. We celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross today.
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).