The representation of the cross in Jane Gemayel’s work

The cross is often represented in Jane’s work, both physically and metaphorically.

In the early Roman Empire, crosses were reserved for criminals and associated with crucifixion. Following the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the symbolism of the cross and the crucifixion became prominent in the art world over the centuries.

Among the most famous works are Raphael’s The Crucifixion Mond (1502–1503), and the four versions by Matthias Grünewald : The Basel Crucifixion, The Washington Crucifixion, The Colmar Crucifixion and The Karlsruhe Crucifixion. But the cross is also a symbol of orientation and indicates the four cardinal points, an expression of the encounter between spirit and matter.

Mysticism is often present in the paintings of Jane Gemayel, who frequently attacks the defects of religion, especially in Power.

In the Woman current, we find Into The Night (2012), and Red Dress (2006), two paintings that propose a form of divine crucifixion of the woman. The cross is not actually represented, but the woman’s position refers to it. Red Dress is an allegory of a modern-day Virgin dressed in a red dress, kneeling. While it is easy to think of this as a moment of recollection or prayer, it is also known that Jane represents and denounces the submission and inequality suffered by women.

It is certainly in The Prophet that Jane makes the most references to the cross and crucifixion.

In Religion (2011), she makes the cross the main element of her painting, in which a haloed woman seems to be struggling against a male figure who is trying to contain her, to control her movements. On one side of the cross, the painting is blood red and on the other, white, a symbol of purity.

In the same vein, Crime and Punishment (2015) has a figure similar to a mixture of a sickle and a cross in which the figures seem to cling to it, like the damned. This representation of an eccentric crucifixion remains in dark colours except for this structure, in which one of Jane’s favourite colours, gold, is found. Can redemption in this work be symbolised by the absence of an established crucifixion ?

But it is in Pain (2014) that Jane has chosen to depict a crucifixion. Women look from behind, but in horror, at another woman, who is veiled atop a cross. The patibulum of the cross is short, she holds her arms in renunciation, abandonment.

Jane announces it with the choice of an absence of colors : the outcome will be fateful.

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Bathers, as seen by Jane Gemayel