Charity, Christian art, French art, Image Journal, James Tissot, reblogged, truth, Uncategorized

So Who Mothers the Mothers? by Joanna Penn Cooper

Posted by AT SUNNYSIDE - WHERE TRUTH AND BEAUTY MEET on September 6, 2019September 6, 2019

Joanna Penn Cooper, writing in Image Journal, paints a poignant picture of the community of women. She writes,

“I think about the private nature of women’s stories of their own suffering, how they are shared at kitchen tables and in late-night phone calls, and these days in online messages, how when I visited her as an adult, my grandmother told me stories of how she cared for her mother-in-law after her stroke… This is the women at the tomb, showing up to anoint the body because that’s just what you do. Show up to care and witness. This is how women mother each other. This unseen work is also how women suffer and stumble and fall down near unto death and get back up again.”

Image: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Women at the Tomb (Madeleine et les saintes femmes au tombeau) – James Tissot From Wikimedia Commons

“So who mothers the mothers

who tend the hallways of mothers,

the spill of mothers,

the smell of mothers,

who mend the eyes of mothers” … 1,456 more words

Notes on this painting:

From Brooklyn Museum of Art

James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). Mary Magdalene and the Holy Women at the Tomb (Madeleine et les saintes femmes au tombeau), 1886-1894. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Image: 9 15/16 x 8 3/8 in. (25.2 x 21.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.329 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 00.159.329_PS2.jpg)

Portfolio/Series: The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ (La Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ)

Place Made: France Dates: 1886-1894

Credit Line: Purchased by public subscription

Image Credit: overall, 00.159.329_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008

From http://www.theworkofgodschildren.org)

“James Jacques Joseph Tissot, born in Nantes, France, (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902). He began working on paintings of costumes and French fashions in 1882. While visiting the church of Saint-Sulpice one day, he had a religious experience and began illustrating the events of the New Testament, even traveling to the Holy Land to accurately portray the landscape, people, clothing, architecture, and customs of people in Jesus’ time.”

Mary Magdalene and the Holy Women at the Tomb is based on the following:

Matthew 28:1-15
Mark 16:1-13
Luke 24:1-12
John 20:1-18

Matthew 28: 1-6:

28:1. At the end of the Sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre.

28:2. Behold there was a great earthquake. For an Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

28:3. His countenance was as lightning and his raiment as snow.

28:4. For fear of him, the guards were struck with terror and became as dead men.

28:5. The Angel said to the women, “Do not fear, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

28:6. “He is not here, for He has risen as He said. Come and see the place where the Lord was laid.