Souza's Passion Series

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The Passion of Christ

FN Souza, the prominent artist of the Bombay Progressive Arts Group was born in Saligao, Goa. Brought up in a strict Catholic family, he was exposed to Christian iconography from his childhood. When he moved to Europe in the late 40s, he saw the grand scale of art and sculpture mirroring Christian religious myths. He went on to paint the complete ‘Passion series’ from the ‘Agony of Christ at Gethsemane’ to ‘Christ at Emmaus’. Critically acclaimed ‘Good Friday at Goa’ also forms a part of this series.

Souza was tormented by the crucifixion of Christ and he painted the scene over and over again. Sketches in his MSS bear witness to his passion and torment. Souza once said, “The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, the enormous Crucifix with the impaled image of a Man supposed to be the Son of God, scourged and dripping with matted hair tangled in plaited horns” (F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography,’ F.N. Souza: Words & Lines)

The paintings which brought him acclaim from international art critics in the 60s are ‘Crucifixion’ and ‘The Deposition’. One of the Crucifixion paintings (1959) was acquired by the Tate Gallery later. He was one of the five painters chosen to represent Britain at the Guggenheim International Award and was hailed by critics by John Berger, as one of the great living painters of the times. Geeta Kapur commented on this, “He has painted many versions of Christ, not all of them so bitterly contemptuous. The famous painting of the 'Deposition’ is not without a tragic content. Characteristically, however, Souza treats even tragedy in his own way, permitting no element of grace to enter the horrifying drama of Christ’s death” (G. Kapur, ‘Francis Newton Souza: Devil in the Flesh,’ Contemporary Indian Artists)

Souza etched Jesus not as a divine figure, but as a human, suffering fear, sadness and anguish writ large on his face. He made the scenes palpable with tragedy and trauma. Taking cues from all-time greats Titian, El Greco and Georges Rouault (first passionate Christian artist of the passion series of 20^th century), he brought his subjectivity to the paintings.  From Rouault, Souza took the thick black line, glass painting technique and tragic human expression. The crying women, distorted morphology of faces of the disciples aggravates the horror in the paintings. The expressionistic color palette and impasto application renders the dark sky menacing and Gothic, foregrounded with the rusty chrome of Christ’s face and earthy ground.

A psychoanalytical approach to his passion series – ‘The Last Supper’, ‘Lament of the Dead’, ‘Death of the Pope’, Christ in the Garden’, ‘Christ Tormented’, ‘Crucifixion’, ‘Good Friday in Goa’ culminating in ‘Christ at Emmaus’ is very absorbing. It throws up elements of childhood repressions and lacunae which formed an important part of his psyche. As Victor Rangel Ribeiro, the nonagenarian writer from Goa (shortly coming out with biography of FN Souza), points out that the strict Catholic ritual and imagery of Christ impaled on a cross, impinged on Souza’s mind as a child and found expression in his paintings later. Ratan Parimoo, the art critic, has compared Souza’s passion series to that of Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland. The distorted thick black line and crisscrosses making up the contours of human faces express the suffering of man, a coming together of divine and human predicament understood and assimilated by viewers better. They can identify with the tragedy, based on their own experiences in life. ‘Art reflects life, life reflects art’ paradigm brings them closer to Christ’s story. God is no longer distant, divine, and majestic. He is like us. He suffers, His spirit fights with His weak flesh. He goes through torment and battles to rise above His emotions, to meet His destiny.

On the other hand, the paintings also indicate human apathy and cruelty. The analogy with Christ is that the best amongst us, the wisest, the noblest, the purest, the most righteous, we put to death. This practice has been a part of human nature from as far back as antiquity. Plato was tormented by Socrates’ death, and made the latter the prime spokesperson of his writings-- ‘Dialogue’ and ‘Apology’.  Plato was the first to offer view of Socrates as the martyr in the line in which he ends one of his Dialogues, the Phaedo, “And that was the end of our friend- who was, we may say, - all of those of his time whom we have known- the best and wisest, and the most righteous man.”

Carrying the image of Christ to the 16^th century – Pieter Bruegel painted the ‘Road to Cavalry’. The unseen Jesus in the middle of the painting carries a cross to Cavalry for his crucifixion and the red-tunic soldiers personify the Roman guard of Pontius Pilate. Thus, the Passion of Christ is superbly juxtaposed with the passion of Flanders, being crucified by the Spanish king’s army, in Bruegel’s days. The sunny side on left of the painting is balanced by the darkness of press of people to the right who have come to witness the crucifixion on the Golgotha hill. The painting conveys binaries of progress and regression in succeeding ages of the earth and repeated patterns in the story of mankind.

In the modern era, amongst other examples in art, Georges Rouault painted ‘Road to Cavalry’ again.  

And Lech Majewski, in 2011, decided to make the subject matter (Bruegel’s – Road to Cavalry) a visual gaze that extends beyond viewing in an art gallery to a film, ‘The Mill and the Cross’. This creative endeavor by Majewski is an attempt to preserve legacy of art and history for posterity and is a savory sampling of the passion series in contemporary times.

Besides the image of Christ carrying the cross, another marked feature of the film was expressions of people on way to cavalry – unconcerned and hardened against injustice, lest their remorse should invoke soldiers’ ire. They are inured, moving from one horrifying spectacle to another, preserving their own skin, till time indicts them. During Bruegel’s days, myths commanded lives of people and their imprint in the arts was discernible. A craggy high rock surmounted by a colossal windmill (Cosmic Mill) represents the universal law of God. The mill owner views the entire scene non-committally perched on a high platform, as the grinders of his mill crush grain ceaselessly.

Metaphorically, Christ continues to be hanged from antiquity to contemporary times. If suffering and trauma is part of the human story, so is injustice, apathy and cruelty. ‘Good Friday’ is a living reality today, but maybe Resurrection i.e. ‘Easter’ is hope that somewhere beyond truth lives on.  Happy Easter!