Cometh the Man

Cometh the Man Commentary by Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III Cite Share Show Bible Passage As Jesus travelled from town to town, we do not know how many were in need of a miracle. We are left to wonder about those he might have passed by as well as those he engaged with; those who go unrecorded in the Gospels as well as those whose healings are narrated. One possible scenario is depicted by Rodolpho Amoêdo, a Brazilian artist of the late nineteenth century, in a painting entitled Jesus em Cafarnaum, completed at the Julian Academy in Paris (1885). Known for his ‘soft and misty’ style of colouration, Amoêdo blurs most of the faces in the scene, except for the man who is lying on the crowded pathway (Braz-Botelho 2015: 37). Amoêdo’s painting foregrounds this young man, his head turned away from Jesus. A woman, perhaps his mother, kneels behind him, extending her arm toward Jesus in an attempt to draw attention to her son. At the corner of the street, two men stand together, holding each other with a sense of anticipation, as though hoping that Jesus will walk by and see their need. Was it on one of his visits to Capernaum (e.g. John 2:12), on a street like this one, that Jesus was first seen by the official who would later approach him? We cannot be sure. Nonetheless, the man on the ground and the people around him are depicted with the greatest clarity and emphasis. The painting presents a poignant scene of the afflicted, with their families the only ones able to plead on their behalf. Jesus descends some stairs in the narrow street, but it is unclear where his focus is directed. He appears not to be paying attention to the person kneeling immediately in front of him and grasping his arm, and it is uncertain whether he has noticed the young man who lies further ahead of him. Amoêdo’s painting deliberately blurs Jesus’s face, creating ambiguity about whether Jesus is approaching the young man or about to walk past him. We are left more certain of the intentions of those who are petitioning him than of his own. References Braz-Botelho, Marilia. 2015. Le peintre brésilien Rodolpho Amoêdo (1857–1941) et l’expérience de la peinture française: académisme ou innovation? (Unpublished PhD thesis, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne-Paris)