Crucified Woman

Lately I've had this image in my mind, of a woman on a cross. Since I am no artist, I hoped someone had done the work for me. A quick Internet search revealed that such images date back several centuries.

At right is a really gorgeous painting I found online, with no attribution. (If you know the title or artist, please do tell!)




Daria Fand's oil painting "The Last of the Believers" (at left) was banned by the city of Honolulu, even though the art exhibit featured many other paintings of nude women. Fand states that the painting was intended as a commentary on the feminine experience, not on Christianity.

In Melbourne, a bronze statue titled "Woman on Cross" has caused quite a controversy, with one local pastor saying:

It is a blasphemous insult to the image of Jesus Christ who was crucified on the cross. There is something wrong with an artist who produces something so insulting to Christians."

An interesting standard, considering the offense Jesus Christ himself caused to the dominant religious community....

Some modern depictions of female crucifixion are political, usually feminist, like this image which speaks to the exploitation of women through biological and legal means:

However, the image itself is not new. Artists have captured the image of the crucified woman throughout history -- probably because it was an experience common to religious martyrs, regardless of gender. We like to pretend that humans are too humane to torture women, but history demonstrates that the martyrdom of women has always been at least as cruel as that experienced by men. Witch hunts, inquisitions and other religious purgings have often targeted women specifically.

This statue is in Belgium.

Hieronymus Bosch's depiction of the martyrdom of St. Julia dates back to the 16th century.

In the 19th century, Gabriel Cornelius Ritter von Max offered up a prettier, more sterilized version of Julia's crucifixion, and titled it "A Christian Martyr on the Cross."

(Left) Saint Librada is the patron saint of working women.

Before someone asserts that the old examples are different (less offensive) because they lack nudity, consider this piece by Raphael Collin, painted in 1890:

"Crucified Woman" is just the image I was looking for. The motion and the values are evocative. The young man rushes in, light, ethereal, almost shadowless. By contrast, the woman is framed by darkness, her body on display but her face obscured.

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