Among the events preparing for the Jubilee Year has been the exhibition in Rome of renowned works of art in various churches.¹ The Vatican programme titled, ‘The Jubilee of Culture,’ is intended to remind Christians of how biblical art catechises us, how it invites us to reflect more deeply on our faith and its practice. As I write this, Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion from the Chicago Art Institute is on display along the Via del Corso in the centre of Rome, drawing thousands to gaze upon it and ponder the Jubilee Year of our redemption.

This Jubilee programme brought Salvador Dalí’s Christ of St. John of the Cross (created in 1951) to Rome. It was displayed from March 13 to June 23, 2024, in the Church of San Marcello also along the Via del Corso. Below Dalí’s masterpiece was the original drawing by St. John of the Cross. When Fr. Bruno, a Carmelite, showed Dalí this drawing, the artist was inspired in a dream to create this painting.

In the drawing by John of the Cross, Christ crucified appears suspended, floating in space. His suffering is visible in the unusually large nail protruding from his hand. The Incarnate Word, sent by God, has preached his message, worked his signs, created a new community among his disciples, given himself to us in the Eucharist and has now returned to God. Jesus has handed over his spirit.  It is finished.  

Dalí’s painting recast John’s drawing. The dark night behind Christ crucified expresses the violence, the horror of the cross. In John’s drawing and Dalí’s interpretation, we view the world from God’s perspective, who looks down upon his crucified Christ, asphyxiated, lifeless, head bowed. The mission is complete. Christ has offered himself for our redemption.

The crucified Christ hovers over the world and for God to behold the world, he must look through the suffering and the act of redemption by his son. God looks through his crucified son to see Auschwitz and the crucifixion of the Jews. God looks through his crucified son to see the killing fields in Cambodia and the crucifixion of Cambodian intellectuals. God looks through his crucified son toward the Mediterranean Sea to see the crucifixion of desperate peoples fleeing persecution, oppression and poverty. In Dalí’s painting, God cannot look upon the world without seeing first Christ’s act of redemption for our crucified world. This is our hope, our Jubilee hope, that the suffering we create for others is rejected by God and that our victims are redeemed by the mystical cross of Christ soaring over our world.  

Dalí added the lower part of the painting that alludes to the Sea of Galilee where the historical Jesus had his home (recall Mark 2:1: Jesus was at home in Capernaum). On that Sea, Jesus would meet Peter, who exclaimed, ‘depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful person.’ (Luke 5: 8) But Jesus did not depart from Peter. Instead, he recognised in Peter’s words a profound recognition of Peter’s own humility and brokenness. This was the one who could speak to others and continue Jesus’ mission to redeem our broken world. Now Christ crucified hangs above that Sea and the mission has been handed over to Peter and to us.

The seashore is the port of Lligat (where the artist lived at the time), though this could be any seashore in the world. The fishermen are organizing their nets and following their daily routines, unaware that above them is their redemption in Christ crucified. The eternally redeeming Christ hovers above the world reminding Carmelites that we too, in our daily routines, are to continue Christ’s mission according to our Rule: all that we do is to be done in the Word of the Lord (cf. paragraph 22).

While Dalí’s surrealist interpretation of Christ crucified was criticised by art critics, the Scottish Art Review (Vol. VI. no. 4. 1958, p. 15) reported: ‘Men entering the room where the picture is hung instinctively take off their hats. Crowds of chattering, high-spirited school children are hushed into awed silence when they see it.’ The thousands of citizens of Glasgow who flocked to see it when it was first displayed in 1952 sensed the sacrality of the painting and their reverential gestures communicated an experience that was beyond words or language. 

Photographic Highlights of the Exhibition Event

The hope for the redemption of our world is God’s dream for our Jubilee Year. Christ’s act of redemption, portrayed by John of the Cross, was then recast in 1951 by Salvador Dalí onto this mystical canvas. When we look up into the night sky, let us imagine John of the Cross’s Christ soaring in the heavens, reminding us of God’s plan for the salvation of the world in Christ crucified.    

1. All images in this article were provided by the author, ↩︎