NOTE ON THE DRAWING OF
Christ on the Cross
One day during the years when Fray John of the Cross was chaplain at the monastery of the Incarnation in Avila, probably between 1574 and 1577, he was praying in a loft overlooking the sanctuary. Suddenly he received a vision. Taking a pen he sketched on a small piece of paper what he had beheld.
The sketch is of Christ crucified, hanging in space, turned toward
his people, and seen from a new perspective. The cross is erect.
The body, lifeless and contorted, with the head bent over, hangs
forward so that the arms are held only by the nails. Christ is
seen from above, from the view of the Father. He is more worm
than man, weighed down by the sins of human beings, leaning toward
the world for which he died.
John, who was to write so many cautions against visions and images,
later gave the pen sketch to one of his devout penitents at the
Incarnation, Ana Maria de Jesus. She guarded it until the time
of her death in 1618, when she gave it to Maria Pinel who was
later to become prioress. In 1641, at the time of Madre Maria's
death, the drawing was placed in a small monstrance, elliptical
in shape, where it was conserved until 1968. It was then sent
for study and restoration to the Central Institute in Madrid
for the conservation and restoration of works of art. Now restored
and provided with a new reliquary, it is once more available
for all to see at the Incarnation in Avila.
Sketch of the Ascent of Mt. Carmel by St. John of
the Cross
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