The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth

Ideas: The linear-organic flow of this piece depicts the final days in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Reading from left to right, you will find the masses, and Lady Justice in judgment over the Pharisees; the Jewish church elders who feared this heretic’s influence would loosen their stranglehold on the followers of the faith. Additionally, both scourged Jesus and criminal Barbaras, one on trial for Heresy and the other for Murder, flank the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Beneath them, them temple is crumbling and we see the visual program fold into the next phase of the passion as it is the Nazarene that is sentenced to death by crucifixion and the murderer released. The middle of the composition depicts the crucifixion and below you find the witnesses, Mother Mary, John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene as well as the 12 other disciples emerging from the bottom of the composition along with a rising, hellish tower inspired from Milton’s, “Paradise Lost”. Finally, moving across to the far right of the piece we find Judas swinging from his tree and tormented by a demon for his betrayal, and engulfed in the fires of the inferno. Thus the tale of this heretic, tortured and executed for speaking his beliefs is told visually across the composition in a very dualistic, black and white aesthetic illustrating the inherent dualism found in all dogmatism.