This is a photo Richard shot of the completed sculpture of the Baptism of Christ, which is shown as a work in progress in the first post on this site. Here are some relevant Biblical passages.
From Matthew:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
From Mark:
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
3 comments:
Richard was very fond of this piece, which represented to him a moment of something akin to Zen satori, an enlightenment, a transfiguration. He described the holy spirit descending as a dove but penetrating into the top of Jesus' head like a bolt from heaven. We talked a lot about the similarities between Eastern and Western mysticism, and this was an example of how the two converged. But to Richard the Christian mythology was always paramount. He had, after all, intended to become a Congregational minister at one time, like his mentor Theodore Teameyer.
-Steve Donachie
Thanks to Steve for notifying me of this lovely blog on Richard's work. I first met him only after he died, and friends told of his collection of scholarly biblical books in his studio. It was hard for me to connect such scholarly resources and researches with a sculptor and artist, and I always wanted to see his work, since most religious art I'd seen was pretty conventional and saccharine. Boring. So it's a delight to see here his beautiful sculpture of the young Christ, and also the powerful Sacrifice of Isaac. The commenaries are fine pieces of work, too.
Footnote: Theodore Tiemeyer was a minister at Christ Congregational Church in Miami who became interested in parapsychology and other non-traditional subjects.
John Sevigny
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