Contemporary Crucifixion: Renato Guttuso's Modern Italian masterpiece

The Crucifixion of Jesus has been a focus for painters throughout the ages. What is depicted reflects the time, place, economics and politics of the painters and the culture in which they reside. Most notably, European artists from the Renaissance on, have painted Jesus, his family and his disciples as Caucasian, when in fact, Jesus was in the middle east, and would have had an ethnicity that reflected his birth place. One must keep context this in mind when viewing any art, of course. But it is particular important to be aware with religious subjects.

Above, is a modern painting, Crucifixion. Here below is the story of its artist, its reception, and what story the painter was trying to tell. As we know, there is never one story on any subject. And the story of the crucifixion is no different in this regard.

"Crucifixion,” a wall-sized oil painting created by Renato Guttuso (1911-87), one of Italy’s finest modern painters, is widely recognized as a 20th-century masterpiece today. But a year after the painting was unveiled in Rome in 1941, during World War II, it sparked controversy. Guttuso, who had made an international debut by winning first prize at the prestigious Premio Bergamo in 1938, was in the process of establishing an international reputation as an artist. When “Crucifixion” won second prize in 1942, the honor solidified his stature and brought him fame. Yet that very year the Vatican condemned the painting, dubbed Guttuso pictor diabolicus, “devilish painter,” and forbade Catholics to see the scandalous work. In several obituaries published in the United States, reporters noted that Guttuso had also been excommunicated because of it. According to one priest, however, he was reunited to the church by a deathbed confession.

The identity of the person (or group, perhaps) who objected to the work is unclear, but the Vatican’s concerns likely involved the painting’s nudity and modernist style.”