This week's Lenten image of Christ Mocked by a Dwarf is the work of Edward Knippers, a fellow collector and key player on the American sacred art scene. He is represented in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection by a diverse body of works, acquired directly from the artist in his studio in Northern Virginia. Knippers is famous for painting his figures in the nude to emphasis the incarnation, when God glorified the body by taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. By contrast, this scene of unclothed figures suggests only shame and humiliation. The Son of God, come to redeem fallen humanity, lowers his tied hands to cover his genitals, as if seeing himself naked for the first time like our primal parents in the Garden of Eden. The dwarf might well be Satan the Temptor, come back to remind the thorn-crowned Christ of his once rejected offer of all the kingdoms of the world. A court jester taunting the King of Kings, he twirls a palm branch to show Jesus just what has become of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (John Kohan)