Crown Of Thorns Research Articles

Notes on the Avignon Pietà

THE Avignon Piet'a (Fig. 1) is to be distinguished from most earlier Pieta's.' The theme of the Virgin supporting the body of her dead Son had from its earliest appearances in mediaeval art and literature been expressed in a highly emotional manner. Alost often the Virgin had been imagined clutching the body of her Son as if unable to relinquish Him to the tomb, or dreaming that she held Hin in her lap once more as an infant. The tone is frequently violent, shrill, or morbid whereas the Avignon Pieta exhibits an ordered restraint. At the center of the painting the hands of the Virgin, rather than holding the body of her Son, are pressed together in prayer; their axial form is repeated in the larger, similar form of her upper body, also a narrow, upright triangle. The torso of Christ is horizontal, its direction extending to include the ministering hands of the Magdalene, holding the jar of ointment, and of John, removing the Crown of Thorns. The arrangement is stable and self-contained, suggesting associations with the liturgy rather than the theater or novelistic accounts of the Passion such as that of PseudoBonaventura. Less regular forms, especially the bending and shadowed face of the Virgin and the long, slanting legs and right arm of Christ, modify the character of the center; their psychic equivalent is a pathos which alters but does not disrupt the prevailing dignity, as when a liturgical ritual is informed by strong personal feeling. The following notes attempt to provide sources for the Avignon Pieta in the history of religious thought and imagery.

KERACONJUNCTIVITIS RESULTING FROM THE SAP OF CANDELEBRA CACTUS AND THE PENCIL TREE.

Introduction The toxic effects of the topical application of plant juice on the human eye have been mentioned previously in the ophthalmic literature. Wong 1 and Crawford 2 reported on crown flower ( Calotropis gigantea ) keratoconjunctivitis. Roberg 3 reported a case of conjunctivitis caused by corn cockle ( Agrostemmae githago ). Muthayya 4 reported on madar ( Calotropis gigantea ) keratitis, and Grana 5 on beach apple ( Hippomane mancinella ) conjunctivitis in soldiers. Our concern is with the more common Euphorbia . The genus Euphorbia contains nearly 1,000 species. Some of these plants are familiar as ornamental plants, ie, the poinsettia ( E pulcherrima ), the crown of thorns ( E milii ), the candelebra cactus ( E lactea ) (Fig 1 and 2), and the pencil tree ( E tirucalli ) 6,7 (Fig 3 and 4). These plants characteristically produce a sticky, acrid, milky juice. This juice exudes in copious quantities from any wound in the two common South Florida species E lactea and

'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth': (Job XIX, 25) From St Gregory's Commentary on Job, Bk XIV

By saying redeemer, not creator, he is clearly announcing one who appeared amongst us in the flesh, long after he had created all things, in order to redeem us from captivity, one who delivered us by his sufferings from never-ending death. And notice with what strong faith in the power of Christ's godhead he pulls himself together; just as St Paul says: ‘Even though he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God’ (2 Cor. xiii, 4), so Job says here: ‘I know that my redeemer lives', as much as to say, more openly, ‘Any unbeliever can know about his being scourged, laughed at, knocked about, crowned with a crown of thorns, smeared with spittle, crucified, and dead; but I believe with the certainty of faith and I freely and openly declare that he lives after death. For my redeemer lives, whom the hands of wicked men slew.’

The Crown of Acanthus (?)

The study on the “crown of thorns” by H. St.J. Hart has presented a large body of interesting material, with elaborate documentation from previous studies, to show that the crown was made from the long spikes that grow on the base of the rachis, or axis, of the date palm frond. He has illustrated many such crowns from pagan coins, and pointed out that the long spikes were used to represent the radiations which were common for the crown of, primarily, Helios. He concludes that the crown made for Jesus was not one of torture but of mockery, to go with the other appurtenances of royalty put on Jesus by the soldiers. To this Bonner has published an additional note which, quoting from Apuleius, attests the use of such a crown at Lucius' initiation into the mysteries of Isis.

The Crown of Thorns

The Rev. H. St. J. Hart has recently put forward the interesting suggestion that the crown of thorns in John 19, 2–5, was made from the long thorns (modified leaflets) that grow on the base of the rachis, or axis, of the date-palm frond. Such a crown, with its tall spines projecting upward from a headband, was intended as a caricature of the radiate crown worn, in numismatic and other representations, by kings and emperors of Hellenistic and Roman times. In the narrative of John it was not an instrument of torture, but merely a “property” used in mockery of Jesus' pretension to be King of the Jews. Mr. Hart provides two excellent plates, which show the radiate crown as it appears on coin types, and also two improvised radiate crowns, one made from the leaflets, the other from the thorns of the date-palm.

In Praise of the Legislative Way

THERE IS AN elementary fact about politics, which is not well understood. It is this: that conflict here is the normal, not the abnormal state. Men talk of, even talk against, power-politics; there is in essence no other kind of politics. Though peace be its goal, war is the differential of politics. This is only half the story, the easier half at that. The other half, the harder half, is that in politics the strife which prevails is normally between honest men. Honesty, we seem to think, ought to beget amity; and amity, we surely believe, ought to cure strife. Why should it be baffling to meet honesty as obstacle? And yet it is so. Dishonest men you can scare into acquiescence; not so the honest opposites. Honest men are of all men the most obdurate. They have been martyred, of course; but even the martydom of such men but unites others behind their honesty, to make it more obdurate still. And when it is honesty that is at odds with honesty, as in politics, the conflict is rendered worse by efforts to subvert, divert, or even to convert. That is what makes politics so difficult. This conception of politics-as a crown of thorns woven by idealists for others to wear, but worn in the event by those who wove them-I do not present as an hypothesis to be discussed. I submit it as a characterization to be accepted before we can even talk intelligently about politics. If you cannot bring yourself to accept the hypothesis that ideals themselves are inharmonious, or at least provoke their devotees to open conflict in the name of the ideals, then I can throw little light upon any such questions; I can only leave you where you have stationed yourself: waiting at the wayside of life to be picked up by some candidate for dictatorship, be he but recommended to you in the warm axiological insignia of your particular provincialism. Together you will make fanatics, you and

STUDIES IN FLORAL ANATOMY. IV. VASCULAR ANATOMY OF THE FLOWER OF CERTAIN SPECIES OF THE PASSIFLORACEAE

STUDIES IN FLORAL ANATOMY. IV. VASCULAR ANATOMY OF THE FLOWER OF CERTAIN SPECIES OF THE PASSIFLORACEAE

The Crown of Thorns in Art

The Crown of Thorns in Art

Crime Is Our Crown of Thorns

Crime Is Our Crown of Thorns

The crown of thorns

The crown of thorns Get access F. C. H. F. C. H. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s4-VI, Issue 141, 10 September 1870, Pages 221–222, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s4-VI.141.221d Published: 10 September 1870

The crown of thorns

The crown of thorns Get access E. R. Pearce E. R. Pearce Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s4-VI, Issue 138, 20 August 1870, Page 164, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s4-VI.138.164f Published: 20 August 1870

The crown of Thorns

The crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns Get access P. A. L. P. A. L. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s4-VI, Issue 132, 9 July 1870, Page 32, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s4-VI.132.32a Published: 09 July 1870

The Crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns

The Crown of Thorns