Great Works Response: The Master's Hand

Historical Contextualization

“Christ Healing at the Pool of Bethesda” by Carl Heinrich Bloch is one of twenty three pictures painted for the Frederiksborg Chapel in Denmark. Bloch was considered one of Europe’s finest portrait painters and received many prestigious awards for his work. It took Bloch fourteen years to complete the collection of paintings for the Chapel. Bloch had been commissioned to illustrate the life of Christ through these paintings and they were to hang in the King’s Praying Chamber within the chapel.

These beloved depictions of the life of Christ can be found in the pages of Ensigns, on the walls of meeting houses, and the covers of church manuals. Bloch’s work has greatly influenced Latter-day Saint members’ idea of what the Savior must have been like

Critical Analysis

Bloch uses the contrast of light and dark to emphasize the idea that Christ is the light of the world and can bring peace and healing to those who believe in Him. Christ is the focal point of the painting in a brilliant white robe illuminated by some unknown light source, and His face shines with divine light. As he lifts the cover from the old, infirm man, His healing light begins to fall on the man. The crippled man has his hands raised in surprise at the kind face looking upon him. This man has probably been overlooked and ignored everyday by the people intent on curing their own illness, and no one has ever shown any concern for him until now.

The people standing behind Jesus are darkness. They seem to be talking to each other, questioning this man who has come and giving Him contemptuous looks. Perhaps they are in darkness because they are not followers of Jesus and do not receive His light. On the other side of the painting in the direction that Jesus is facing are people who are unaware of His presence in the moment, but will likely notice Him and believe in Him when they witness the miracle of the infirm man being healed. A small boy standing by his mother greatly resembles the boy in another of Bloch’s paintings, “Christ and Child.” The boy looks at the viewer as if to indicate that he is aware of what is going on in the foreground.

A red cap draws attention to its wearer: a man sitting beside the pool, gazing directly at the viewer of the painting. The expression on his face is hard to read. Perhaps he is giving a warning stare; He wants to get to the water first, and does not want anyone to stop him from being healed. Or, as I prefer to think, he is inviting the viewer to notice the miracle is going on beside him and to come be healed by Christ. Either way, the man’s gaze includes the viewer as a participant in the painting as well, making it a much more personal experience.

One interesting comparison that can be made is between the pool of Bethesda and Christ. One is healing water and one is the Living Water. While the pool is the reason for which all the people have gathered, only a small portion of it can be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the painting. One could say that the pool represents worldly needs and desires. All the people in the painting have the goal of making it to the pool first to have their needs satisfied. But if only they turned instead to Christ, who is standing in their midst, they could all be healed. Unlike the “worldly” pool that can only satisfy their temporal needs to a degree, Christ the Living Water can satisfy them spiritually so that they “never thirst again” (John 4:14).

Personal Reflection

As a member of the Church, I have been familiar with Carl Bloch’s paintings my whole life. But because I saw them everywhere, I took them for granted. I never really noticed the paintings, let alone wondered who painted them.

However, seeing the original paintings was like seeing those images for the first time. They were so much bigger, the details were clearer, and the colors deeper than the copies I had seen before. It was fascinating to not only see the original familiar face of the Savior that I had seen so many times before, but to actually see the texture of the brushstrokes as proof that someone had actually painted these beautiful paintings. For the first time I realized that these paintings could only be created out of love and devotion to the Savior. I could see Bloch’s careful consideration in the way that he depicted Christ in his paintings. I could feel the spirit so strongly as I sat in the exhibit and I felt Carl Bloch’s testimony of the loving nature of Christ through his exquisite paintings.