One of the grand scenes of the Passion narratives can be found in John’s Gospel where Pilate, presenting Jesus to the people, proclaims “Behold the man”: “Ecce Homo.” But what exactly does Pilate mean when he asks the reader to “Behold”? This paper takes as its point of departure a roughly drawn picture of Jesus in the “Ecce Homo” tradition and explores the relationship of this picture to its referent in John’s Gospel, via its capacity as kitsch devotional art. Contemporary scholarship on kitsch focuses on what kitsch does, or how it functions, rather than assessing what it is. From this perspective, when “beholding” is understood not for what it reveals but for what it does, John’s scene takes on a very different significance. It becomes a scene that breaks down traditional divisions between big and small stories, subject and object as well as text and context. A kitsch perspective opens up possibilities for locating John’s narrative in unexpected places and experiences. Rather than being a two-dimensional departure from the grandeur of John’s trial scene, kitsch “art” actually provides a lens through which the themes and dynamics of the narrative can be re-viewed with an expansiveness somewhat lacking from more traditional commentary.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Adorno Theodor W. & Horkheimer Max Noerr G. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception 2002 94 136 Stanford Stanford University Press Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments
Brown Raymond E. 1970 New Haven Yale University Press The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI
Calinescu M. 1987 Durham Duke University Press Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism
Cixous Helene & Derrida Jacques 2001 Stanford Stanford University Press Veils (trans. Geoffrey Bennington; with drawings by Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Clines David J. A. 1976 Sheffield Sheffield Academic Press I, He, We, and They: A Literary Approach to Isaiah 53
Greenberg Clement Avant-Garde and Kitsch 1939 6 34 49 Partisan Review
Keener Craig S. 2003 Peabody Hendrickson Publishers The Gospel of John: A Commentary
Kjellman-Chapin Monica The Politics of Kitsch 2010 22.1 (January) 27 41 Rethinking Marxism
Lincoln Andrew T. 2005 London Continuum The Gospel According to St. John
Maloney Francis J. 1998 Collegeville Liturgical The Gospel of John
McDannell Colleen 1995 New Haven Yale University Press Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America
Moore Stephen D. 2001 Stanford Stanford University Press God’s Beauty Parlor: and Other Queer Spaces In and Around the Bible
Morgan David 1998 Berkeley University of California Press Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images.
O’Kane Martin Isaiah 53: Picturing ‘The Man of Sorrows 2005 9.2 62 101 Religion and The Arts
Solomon Robert C. On Kitsch and Sentimentality 1991 49.1 (Winter) 1 14 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Sontag Susan Notes on Camp 1964 31 515 530 Partisan Review
Wallace D. B. 1996 Grand Rapids Zondervan Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics
Wilde Oscar 1998 Oxford Oxford University Press The Soul of Man, De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 235 | 38 | 3 |
Full Text Views | 226 | 0 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 76 | 3 | 0 |
One of the grand scenes of the Passion narratives can be found in John’s Gospel where Pilate, presenting Jesus to the people, proclaims “Behold the man”: “Ecce Homo.” But what exactly does Pilate mean when he asks the reader to “Behold”? This paper takes as its point of departure a roughly drawn picture of Jesus in the “Ecce Homo” tradition and explores the relationship of this picture to its referent in John’s Gospel, via its capacity as kitsch devotional art. Contemporary scholarship on kitsch focuses on what kitsch does, or how it functions, rather than assessing what it is. From this perspective, when “beholding” is understood not for what it reveals but for what it does, John’s scene takes on a very different significance. It becomes a scene that breaks down traditional divisions between big and small stories, subject and object as well as text and context. A kitsch perspective opens up possibilities for locating John’s narrative in unexpected places and experiences. Rather than being a two-dimensional departure from the grandeur of John’s trial scene, kitsch “art” actually provides a lens through which the themes and dynamics of the narrative can be re-viewed with an expansiveness somewhat lacking from more traditional commentary.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 235 | 38 | 3 |
Full Text Views | 226 | 0 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 76 | 3 | 0 |