Picture in Focus: The Cross Bearers by Michel Fingesten

February 28, 2021

Picture in Focus: The Cross Bearers by Michel Fingesten

Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-27, NRSV)
Taking Up the Cross is a fundamental principle of Christian devotional life, particularly during the Lenten season. This week's featured book plate from the East European Jewish Printmaker, Michel Fingesten, shows how Christians throughout history have all too often imposed the bearing of the Cross on others than themselves by their endorsement of oppressive political, social, and economic regimes. In this etching from World War I, Fingesten shows gaunt workers dragging a crucifix mounted on a gun carriage in a bleak industrial setting, reminding us how all sides in the continental conflict claimed the blessing of Christ on their war efforts. Noted for such pieces of social satire, Fingesten was working in Berlin when the Nazis came to power and fled to Italy, where he died in 1943, several days after Allied Forces liberated him from an internment camp. This print about cross-bearing can be found on the East European Ex Libris page in the Schools of Sacred Art section. (John Kohan)