ARTS

The tragedy and the triumph

Michael Marshall on how the message of Easter has inspired artists, musicians and writers The Easter theme of death and resur- rection has inspired the greatest works of many of the greatest artists. In those parts of the world where the predominant cul- ture has been formed by the Christian tra- dition, the specific narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has given expression either in paintings, sculpture or music in notoriously compelling forms.

. In such renderings the Easter theme is at its most compelling when the death and resurrection motifs are held together in Paradox and tension, when triumph and tragedy are inextricably bound together, rather than perceived as opposites. Van Gogh's `Pieta', presently on dis- play in Modem Art in Britain 1910-1914 at the Barbican (until 26 May), is an especially telling example of such a paradoxical portrayal. Painted while van Gogh was 'imprisoned' in the asy- lum at Saint-Remy after his break- down at Arles, it was originally dismissed as yet another example of his insanity.

Unlike so many other portrayals of Mary with the dead body of Christ, just taken down from the cross, the promise of release and resurrection is also all there. Christ, while clearly dead in the painting, is nevertheless so portrayed that he seems already to be Springing free from the grip or embrace of the hands of Mary, which are held open in despair/faith as though this Christ has 'sprung' free from the grip of that restricting flesh and blood, which Mary originally gave him in her womb. And all this when, Within only a short while, he will break free from the linen cloths which bound him in death and in the tomb.

It is this letting-go by Mary and her apparent surrender (as though she has been compelled to let him go yet again, as she did from her womb in the pain of birth) Which articulates so powerfully this theme of death and life, tragedy and triumph, despair and hope — and all on the same canvas.

Of course, such an insight cannot claim to be exclusively Christian — nor should it. The greatest truths of the Christian religion are never the exclusive property of the Christian tradition. One would rightly be most suspicious if they were or even • claimed to be. For example, the image of the phoenix rising out of the ashes is to be found in various forms in many traditions the world over. It is not insignificant that the example of this theme of death and res- urrection held together, which Christ him- self gives in the Gospel of John, does not draw upon religious imagery, but rather Despair and hope: van Gogh's Pieta' upon the evidence of the world of nature. 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.' Indeed it is supremely that same fourth gospel which refuses from the outset to prize apart death and resur- rection, insisting upon speaking of Christ's hour on the cross as supremely and para- doxically his 'hour of glory'.

So this paradox of death/life lies at the heart of the very nature of things, and it is the heart of the very nature of things with which artists as well as philosophers and theologians are rightly concerned. Poets of every age are on to it, of course:

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.

Wordsworth: 'The Prelude' For the true artist soon realises that the creativity is in the suffering while theolo- gians (like the contemporary Moltmann) go further, claiming that both the creativity and the suffering together are in the heart of the Creator, whom they describe as 'The Crucified God', summarised in the syllo- gism: to love is to create and to create is to suffer.

The wise theologian will not be ashamed to confess, however, that such truths are seldom best conveyed and communicated only through words. Preachers and theolo- gians alike need the 'language' of the artist and not least the musician to quarry out such depths to the human psyche. Schubert, the bicentenary of whose birth we are observing this year, articu- lates this not only in the words he wrote, but also in the music he com- posed. Although he was by no means an orthodox believer, in his diaries and personal writings he expresses a deep religious faith. (It is significant that, in all his settings of the Mass, he consis- tently omits ever to set to music that phrase from the Catholic creed: 'I believe in one, holy, catholic and apos- tolic church.') Elizabeth McKay in her new biography of Schubert writes: 'His [Schubert's] God was not merely the inspiration of the church, nor was the church the exclusive source of his beliefs. Whatever was beautiful in the world was also divine or divinely inspired.'

So Schubert can write with amazing confidence: 'We must not let our spir- its sink in gloomy circumstances ... for sorrows too are a blessing from God and lead those who manfully endure to the most glorious goal.'

'Where in history,' he asks, 'is to be found a great man who did not win the vic- tory through suffering and unflinching per- severance?' He concludes: 'What I produce is there because of my musical understand- ing and my sorrow.' In musical terms, it was possibly the recent rejection by his publisher of his sombre Piano Sonata in A Minor D784 in 1823 which occasioned these more universal reflections.

Yet throughout all of Schubert's writings, there is this paradox of desolation and con- solation, despair and hope, in telling juxta- position, with often only a half-tone moving us from a dark key of despair immediately into a bright transposition of hope and resurrection. It is this which is so poignant for example not only in the Fan- tasia in F Minor or, of course, in the awe- some late Quintet in C Major, but also throughout the whole of his song-cycles. It was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who claimed that 'victory over death' is the essential and main theme in all the Schubert 'Novalis' settings, and in a study of Schubert's songs, he wrote: `Schubert's struggle with this phenomenon [i.e. victory over death] is manifested here as the personal experience of an act of faith.'

There will be many — and not least in a post-Freudian age — who will simply mut- ter dismissively in a reductionist spirit — 'merely a manic-depressive disorder', as no doubt was said explicitly of van Gogh, or `cyclothymia' as it is currently medically defined in the latest of Schubert's biogra- phies. Yet — to use the words of the Chris- tian prayer — it is nevertheless not only Christians (nor even exclusively manic- depressives) who discover for themselves 'that the way of suffering can lead to a new fullness of life'.

For the witness of artists, musicians and of many creative spirits throughout the ages, as well as theologians and philoso- phers — indeed of all those who have been compelled to burrow beneath the surface of things and to go deep, as the Easter sea- son bids us do — is astoundingly unani- mous: namely, that to those with ears or eyes 'anointed' (dare I say?) through suf- fering 'the cross' (to use the specifically Christian imagery) is indeed none other than 'the tree of life'.

Bishop Michael Marshall is Archbishop's Adviser for Faith and the Arts.