Picture in Focus: Christ on the Cross Lithograph by Paul Aizpiri

April 6, 2011

Picture in Focus: Christ on the Cross Lithograph by Paul Aizpiri

A new lithograph of Christ on the Cross has just been added to the image gallery on the Paul Aizpiri profile page in the Sacred Artists section. This enigmatic print, which came to me untitled, shows two figures beneath a Medieval-styled Crucifix. The man on the right, holds a wine goblet in his hand and is just about to plunge his fork into a roasted fowl. He looks with suspicion, or perhaps, guilt toward a second figure on the left, kneeling in supplication. Does this image symbolize the struggle between the flesh and the spirit in all of us? Could it represent the great gulf between the rich and the poor? Your interpretation is as good as mine. Whatever the meaning, this is, certainly, a striking image to contemplate during the Lenten season! It joins a lithographic series by Aizpiri, already on line, illustrating the Medieval French text, La Passion de Nostre Seigneur. (John Kohan)