Pictures in Focus: Four Drypoints of the Passion by Alena Antonova

April 1, 2011

Pictures in Focus: Four Drypoints of the Passion by Alena Antonova

With Easter just a few weeks away, I've uploaded four new images of the Passion by Czech Graphic Artist Alena Antonova in the East European Ex Libris gallery in the Schools of Sacred Art Section. These small-format, drypoint prints depict scenes from Holy Week, rendered in a curvilinear, Cubist-Baroque style and tinted in different colors. The Last Supper is a study in muted carmine and tan with Christ, highlighted in green; Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is in greenish grey (with a few decorative floral touches); Christ, the Man of Sorrows, is in purple tones; and the Descent from the Cross is in a washed-out, greyish brown. (Like Rembrandt, Antonova introduces dogs into two of the prints!) These new images join two other scenes of the life of Christ by Antonova in my collection. (John Kohan)