Cross examination

As Easter comes upon us in this bitter spring, many of us are drawn to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s passion: his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. You don’t have to go to church to do this, for reverie or prayer can take place in a quiet landscape or by a cosy fireside, but there are various aids to meditation, and none better than the appropriate visual art. Although we live in an increasingly irreligious age, there have been religious painters of real power in recent years, and perhaps none more so than Craigie Aitchison (1926–2009). Aitchison is an unlikely choice because he himself professed no particular belief, although his grandfather, the Reverend James Aitchison, a United Free Church clergyman, was Minister of the Erskine Church in Falkirk for more than 50 years. Yet Craigie felt compelled to paint the Crucifixion again and again — ever since his student days at the Slade when a misguided tutor told him that the subject was far too serious for him to attempt.