THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST IN ART
- Category: Art
- Author/Editor: François Boespflug, Emanuela Fogliadini
- Format: Illustrated/Hardback
- Dimension: 24 cms x 30 cms
- Pages: 232
- Price: 70 €
- Year: 2021
- Signs:
Review
A journey from the catacombs to contemporary art, from the East to the West of Europe, with an opening on extra-European art - Asia, Africa, America - to tell a fundamental event of Christian history. The Baptism of Christ, received at the age of about thirty and recounted by the four Gospels, puts an end to the long silence on life in Nazareth - the previous episode recounted was the Finding among the Doctors of the Temple at the age of twelve - and represents the entrance portico on the following fasting in the desert for forty days, which will be followed by the public trial, which will lead him to the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Baptism was administered to him, at his request, by his cousin who became a hermit in the desert and preacher, John the Baptist, who initially refused declaring himself unworthy and finally obeyed, placing his hand on his head or making an anointing gesture, while Jesus plunged into the Jordan River. At that moment a solemn theophany took place: the Holy Spirit descended on Christ while the voice of the Father designated him as the beloved Son. This inaugural moment constitutes a sort of archetype of the sacrament that all the baptized receive "in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" on the occasion of Baptism which admits them as members of the Church.