Richard Harries reflects on how Christ’s crucifixion has been depicted over the ages
The first depiction of Jesus on the cross, on a small ivory panel in the British Museum dating from 420, shows him upright, arms outstretched, eyes open and very much alive. This is Jesus victorious on the cross. The Western Church never entirely lost sight of this theme. There are a good number of small metal crucifixes which survive from the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly from Scandinavia and Britain, which show Christ hanging, half-naked, his body sagging forward and his head on one side; but this battered figure has a crown on his head. From 1930 to the 1950s, somewhat against the odds, Jesus was once again sometimes depicted as Christus Victor, reigning from the tree.
In the early centuries of the Church’s history, artists were reluctant to depict Jesus dead on the cross, no doubt because they found it difficult to do this while at the same time doing justice to his divinity.
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