Harry Anderson: CHRIST ORDAINING THE APOSTLES

 

THE STORY: In Luke 6, Jesus calls his twelve apostles: Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphæus, Simon called Zelotes, Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot. This painting shows Christ ordaining one of the apostles to the priesthood while the others watch.

Harry Anderson, a Seventh-Day Adventist, painted this image to hang in the Mormon Pavilion of the 1964 New York World Fair.

ANALYSIS: One of the first lessons about line my humanities professor taught is that predominately vertical lines give a painting a feeling of stillness, power, and authority. He told us to envision a queen or king holding a scepter to remember. Here's a couple of examples: 

See how this painting (of a wedding--a legally and religiously significant event) and statue (of the goddess Juno) both give a feeling of upright power and authority due to their dominating vertical lines?

The message of Christ Ordaining the Apostles is underscored by the vertical lines Anderson uses. This is a moment of power and authority--Jesus Christ conferring His power, the power by which He made the world, on a mortal man. All of the apostles stand, flanking Christ, their upright bodies vertical, and the drapes behind Christ emphasize the vertical lines.

Christ's hands are at the very center of the painting, and the strong symmetry and balanced lines draw attention to his hands. The overall composition is a large X with Christ's hands on the apostle's head in the very center. This balanced composition draws attention to the solemnity and power of this moment.

PERSONAL IMPACT: This painting hung for years in the chapel of the Denver Temple, so I've spent a lot of time looking at it. It reminds me of Paul's words in his epistle to the Ephesians: "Now therefore ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

I love the temple imagery in this scripture. All members of the church are built on a foundation of the apostles, prophet, and Christ, and together, as a Zion community, we grow together into a holy temple. The priesthood--the power of God--binds us together into one. And this moment, when Jesus Christ ordains His servants to that power, is a sacred and holy one.

I wouldn't mind if they hung this painting back up in the temple chapel.