At the exhibition of the Royal Academy, in London, the great canvas by
Sigismund Goetze, entitled “Despised and Rejected of Men,” has created
an artistic sensation. It is declared to be a “powerful and terribly
realistic presentment of Christ” in a modern setting, and is described
by a writer in _The Christian Commonwealth_ (London), as follows:
In the center of the canvas is the Christ, standing on a
pedestal, bound with ropes, while on either side passes the
heedless crowd. A prominent figure is a richly vested priest,
proudly conscious of the perfection of the ritual with which he
is starving his higher life. Over the shoulder of the priest
looks a stern-faced divine of a very different type. Bible in
hand, he turns to look at the divine figure, but the onlooker is
conscious that this stern preacher of the letter of the gospel
has missed its spirit, and is as far astray as the priest whose
ceremonial is to him anathema. The startled look on the face
of the hospital nurse in the foreground is very realistic;
so is the absorption of the man of science, so intent on the
contents of his test-tube that he had not a glance for the
Christ at his side. One of the most striking figures is that of
the thoughtless beauty hurrying from one scene of pleasure to
another; and spurning the sweet-faced little ragged child who
is offering a bunch of violets. In rejecting the plea of the
child we know that the proud woman is rejecting the Christ who
has identified himself forever with the least of these little
ones. The only person in the whole picture who has found time
to pause is the mother seated on the steps of the pedestal with
her baby in her arms, and we can not but feel that when she has
ministered to the wants of her child she will spare a moment
for the lover of little children who is so close to her. In the
background stands an angel with bowed head, holding the cup
which the world He loved to the death is still compelling the
Christ to drink, while a cloud of angel faces look down upon the
scene with wonder. As the visitor turns away he is haunted with
the music of Stainer’s “Crucifixion,” “Is it nothing to you, all
ye that pass by?” (Text.)
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