[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]
John Everett Millais’
1850 painting, “Christ in the Carpenter Shop,” intrigues me. Its departure into
realism stirred quite a storm and even brought down scathing criticism from
Charles Dickens. What catches my eye is not the artistic issues but the
message; and here I see something different than the artist intended.
Millais’ intention was
symbolism in realism. Jesus has injured his hand on a protruding nail. Gramma
Anne is belatedly pulling out the nail, Mom is offering her cheek for comfort
(I’m not sure who’s comforting whom), and Dad is inspecting the wound. So far
so good. However, Millais intended the boy with the wash basin to be John the
Baptist – foreshadowing the day he would baptize his cousin.
Personally, I believe
Millais created a more realistic picture than he realized. He gave us a glimpse at the sterilized view we have of Jesus in general. One of the great, unaddressed
issues of the Incarnation is our imagery of what it would have been like for
Jesus’ siblings to grow up in a home with a perfect big brother. My take on the
painting sees the boy with the basin not as John the Baptist but as one of his
brothers; and, if looks could kill, his could, as he watches his pampered sibling in his pretty robe being mollycoddled while he has to plug away at his dirty
job in his grubbies.
In wondering what the
conversational life of Jesus’ home may have been like, it is important that we
dismiss this wimpy portrayal and reassess the matter of what it would have been
like to have had a big brother who never sinned and, yet, grew up tempted in all ways as we are, in the full rigors of a lower middle class home – one of
five boys and with at least two sisters.
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DEVOTIONAL: JESUS BEYOND CHRISTMAS
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DEVOTIONAL: OF HANDS AND EYES AND GATES AND DOORPOSTS
But the boy holding the basin is taller (older ??) for a younger brother. Of course it is possible that he grew faster. Who is the other boy at the opposite end of the table as Joseph? John the Baptist was only a few months older than Jesus, so he could be a little taller.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fun to study good art! Perhaps they are Junior High age where height has no meaning :-) The boy with the basin is definitely more rugged in build, which was true of my firstborn and second born in their youth. As to the other boy (man), my assumption has been that he was a hired hand. So far I've seen no reference to any specific purpose Millais' might have had in mind by inserting him. Thank you for taking time to prod my thinking.
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