Posted on 05/14/2023 11:24:54 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A nearly 150-year-old stained-glass church window that depicts a dark-skinned Jesus Christ interacting with women in New Testament scenes has stirred up questions about race, Rhode Island’s role in the slave trade and the place of women in 19th century New England society.
The window installed at the long-closed St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Warren in 1878 is the oldest known public example of stained glass on which Christ is depicted as a person of color that one expert has seen.
“This window is unique and highly unusual,” said Virginia Raguin, a professor of humanities emerita at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and an expert on the history of stained-glass art. “I have never seen this iconography for that time.”
The 12-foot tall, 5-foot wide (3.7 meters by 1.5 meters) window depicts two biblical passages in which women, also painted with dark skin, appear as equals to Christ. One shows Christ in conversation with Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, from the Gospel of Luke. The other shows Christ speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well from the Gospel of John. […]
The window was commissioned by a Mary P. Carr in honor of two women, apparently her late aunts, whose names appear on the glass, (Hadley) Arnold said. Mrs. H. Gibbs and Mrs. R. B. DeWolf were sisters, and both married into families involved in the slave trade. The DeWolf family made a fortune as one of the nation’s leading slave-trading families; Gibbs married a sea captain who worked for the DeWolfs. Both women had been listed as donors to the American Colonization Society, founded to support the migration of freed slaves to Liberia in Africa. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
“Jesus probably looked like an Arab”
Probably looked Jewish.
Because some dumb ass academic says so
Who would have guessed a Jew living out in the Judean desert would be dark skinned?
They didn’t have Coppertone back then.
5.56mm
Madonna and child are depicted with tan complexions, which is what would be expected for people living in the Middle East, rather than as sub-Saharan Africans.
They were fit enough to spend whole days net-fishing, so I doubt they looked wizened. Might have looked healthier than the Romans too.
C’mon, everyone knows Christ was Nordic. He had blond hair, blue eyes, and perpetually red skin from sunburn. /s
Tolkien fan myself... And how I caught it. :)
Cleopatra was Greek. Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, and the ruling class thereafter was of Macedonian/Greek descent.
That is SO FAMOUS. Isn’t it sometimes called the Black Madonna, or something like that? I’m aware of it from my years in Hudson County, NJ. Many, many Polish folks there.
“C’mon, everyone knows Christ was Nordic. He had blond hair, blue eyes, and perpetually red skin from sunburn.”
And runs his operation from Southern Georgia...
ROFL! Good post.
It's like the esteemed holy toenails of the Apostle John, which every other Catholic church in parts of the world may claim, except, John never had 2,000 toenails to have stolen from his grave, to be traded amongst a tribe of Catholic, to venerate.
Does that help?
Hahaha
Fact says Christ was an Israeli.
Logic says most Israelis are Caucasian.
Unless they’re Ethiopian.
Hahaha
Fact says Christ was an Israeli.
Logic says most Israelis are Caucasian.
Unless they’re Ethiopian.
Ever think the artisan was low on materials and substituted what he had on hand?
I did not know that. Interesting. I may need to revise my opinion.
Rhode Island needs to realize the only reason it exists is for unflattering size comparisons to other places.
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