Christ of St. John of the Cross - Salvador Dali

[@lynneshort9943]

The most beautiful & stunning painting ever

[@padraig7744]

Being a Glasgow resident, I have seen this magnificent work many times & it never ceases to impress and inspire. Thank you for this concise explanation and description of its meaning.

[@davebennett4081]

12 years ago myself and wife were on holiday in Scotland and visited Glasgow. We went on a bus tour that went past St Mungo museum of religion where this was on display. The wife mentioned this picture was there but we couldn't get off the tour bus to see it. Divine intervention maybe but the bus broke down outside the museum so we did get off and went inside. I had only seen a postcard of it previously and wasn't too impressed by that. I spent over 1 hour sat in front of it totally transfixed. It changed my view of art and I went on to do an art based degree with this work being the core of one of my modules. Having viewed many great art works in person this ranks in my top 1.

[@davidwright8432]

'He' moves in mysterious ways - but he must have laughed at a bus breakdown, as He arranged it!

[@isaiah3872]

I was introduced to Dali in secondary school & this was one of his works that always stuck with me. Years later, as my faith is deepening and I'm beginning to appreciate St. John of the Cross' poetry, this video comes across my radar. How nice

[@tonygibson6436]

Thank you DSPT for putting together the history of this painting. St John of The Cross was an exceptional man who wrote extensively about following Christ by imitating Him in His life and in His death on the Cross with the interior dryness, emptiness and desolation which accompanied Jesus in His excruciating physical pain and public humiliation. His depiction of Christ crucified from the top down came to John in a vision; and in a similar way Salvador Dali had a dream (based on John's drawing) with that same aspect. Dali's depiction isolates and centralises the Redemptive Act then broadens it into the landscape of the world over which it brings Salvation. I have never travelled out of Australia, but if I do Spain will be destination #1 with the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and these places which figured prominently in the life of St John of The Cross: Fontiveros (born), Salamanca (educated), Toledo (imprisoned) and Ubeda (died). From reading the comments below of those who visited Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and viewed Salvador Dali's painting, a visit to Scotland to view this work will have to be weaved in.

[@SLFinSF]

I am 62, interested in art, love museums -- and have been familiar with this painting for some 45 years -- from photographs, etc. It never particularly moved me. Last autumn, my husband (who also knows and loves art) and I visited the Kelvingrove museum. I had not realized it was home to this painting. We separated as we wandered through the galleries and I came upon him, standing in front of this painting, staring. I looked at it, and was stopped cold in my tracks. We both stood and stared for minutes. I have never had this experience of being pulled in and held, transfixed, by a work of art like this (and we have been to the Louvre, Vatican, Metropolitan Museum, Uffizi, etc, etc.) Tom Honeyman's name should be celebrated by all Scots because whilethe director of the Kelvingrove, saw this painting before it had ever been exhibited by Dali, immediately recognized its unique power and importance and moved heaven and earth to acquire it. It is REMARKABLE that the only home this painting has ever had after its creation has been GLASGOW. My hat is forever off to Mr. Honeyman. It is worth a special trip to Scotland to see this painting -- and I having visited the National Museums in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Scotland (still need to visit Perth!) I can tell you that SCOTLAND has amazing, amazing art museums (beautiful buildings and galleries!) and fantastic holdings -- why it is not widely considered a great country for art is amazing.

[@deadbydayinblack]

You where lucky, sadly it was not always in its present place. Now ( as you say) it has its own area with a mini history of the painting with the corespondance between Honeyman n Dali, as well as the vandalsim done upon it It was for a time in a TERRIBLE place where the lights of the gallery ruined the greatness and footfall ment you could not take in its presence ( and it its a majestic one no hyperbolye) So I am glad our fair city did not do you the dirty on your visit.

[@1970kingbob]

I’m Scottish and proud that we house this piece here. I’ve seen several Dali works but this image stands head and shoulders above the rest. I’ve always wanted to paint this and now my sister said she will house it if I paint it so now I can begin

[@cgandrieu9385]

We miss you Michael Morris, we lost so much expertise and insight when we lost you. Hope you are also watching over us.

[@XanthusBarnabas]

My brother (an Air Force Methodist chaplain), knew Father Michael Morris...a good man...

[@catherinecarey3648]

I loved this, Joe. Reminded me our Last Supper is Salvatore Dali, too. Thanks so much

[@dariaschooler]

My mom met him when he visited the Art Institute of Chicago when she studied there from 1948-52. She was in the back of a packed room by the door as Dali was mobbed by everyone. Apparently he wanted a quick exit and dropped to the floor, crawling between his admirers legs to the door. He stood up right in front of her and signaled she stay quiet, and ran out the door without saying a word. My mother was equally talented, and devoted her life to her family and students.

[@MewPkmn]

I just noticed that Dali's painting seems to have the light source on Christ coming from the same perspective as the viewer in John of the Cross's version. Could it be meant to represent the light of God the Father looking down on the Crucified Christ from the original work?

[@raysnvc]

Thank you very much for this detailed video!

[@Parasmunt]

Amazing work of art, the colours he uses brown and orange are ghastly they highlight the suffering taking place while the blackness behind him is like a nightmare - like the darkness he sought to save the Christians from. Dali was very spiritual, there was nothing hoaxed about this work.

[@SLFinSF]

Hoping you mean they are "ghostly" rather than "ghastly"? Two very different meanings...

[@brunyate]

An excellent video. Clearly, it has a proselytizing purpose, but that barely gets in the way of a very cogent historical and symbolic analysis. I used to teach art history at Glasgow University, on the hill behind the Kelvingrove Museum, so this was one of my local masterpieces. But I didn't appreciate it then, fifty-some years ago. Now teaching a course on sacred art to people as old as myself, it all makes so much more sense!

[@SLFinSF]

Interesting -- I did not have the same response as you. Did not feel the video was "proselytizing." I also feel that the painting transcends Christianity. My husband was of "mixed" religious parentage, raised in both Jewish and Roman Catholic traditions, was a practicing Zen Buddhists for years (studied with some of "the greats") like Alan Watts -- and then earned his Ph.d in Comparative Religions at Harvard -- though that was decades ago and he has never worked in that field. But we both felt that this painting emanated a tremendous spiritual power that "drew you in" and its power immediately silenced everyone we saw view it or even look briefly at it. It is definitely a "presence" -- that felt to us outside and beyond any of the conventional and usually contrained/constraining 21st century concepts of religion -- and I never, ever "got that" by looking at the many photographs and plates and reproductions I have seen of it during my (62-year) lifetime.

[@davidwright8432]

Very many thanks. I came across the Dali painting as a 10 yr old Catholic kid, and was startled and drawn into it. Likewise with Dali's other Christ figure, 'Corpus Hypercubus' ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_(Corpus_Hypercubus) ). I was unaware of John of the Cross' sketch, which in some ways I find far more 'living' (ironic, but there it is) than Dali's - tho each has its own resonance.

[@paulmitchell9975]

Lucky enough to grow up near Glasgow and this was an astonishing thing to see when you were 12 (and 22, 32 etc etc). Made me think that maybe this thing I believed wasn't just a pedestrian, everyday fact of the universe. Also, made me want to do lots of pull-ups in case I was ever crucified myself, so....win win?

[@malscott5756]

I first saw this painting in Glasgow when I was about 13. I didn't know what it was or how significant it was. I was at the time, considering bok

[@almeggs3247]

Beautiful thanks well done!

[@monabell9822]

❣️❣️

[@theresameuse8583]

I'd like to see a catholic spiritual posting

[@18waywardson]

Sorry, but if he doesn't have the wounds of the crucifixion, he isnt my Lord. That's not Jesus.