Easter Sunday – 18 April 2022

This picture imagines Easter Sunday, any Easter Sunday, but references the day of resurrection. Three women are up early, making their way towards a burial ground. They stand on a road, the breadth of which takes up the whole width of the bottom of the painting. It winds its way into the distance, drawing our eye in and up. The top two thirds of the picture is concerned with the sky. The sun is just rising, and cannot yet be seen, but the moon shines still. The night is dying, and the day is bringing resurrection. The road is flanked on each side with trees, which are just emerging from winter. New life is beginning to appear.

The picture intentionally resonates with the story of the three Marys making their way to the tomb of Jesus, to find it empty. The women in this picture walk together, the light in the sky indicating that they should be filled with hope.

This picture is ‘Easter Sunday’ (1828-1835) by Caspar David Friedrich, in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid. It is the only painting with a biblical theme by this devout Lutheran artist. In his work he was searching for new ways to express his faith in his paintings that would do justice to his deep experiences of God in nature and daily life. He wrote: ‘The noble person recognizes God in everything.’

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and (Mary) Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

Mark 16:1-2

Three Marys on the road going to a tomb
One old one younger one in bloom
Hurrying thru a world  changing as they sped
The dark of the first new day

‘The sun is coming’ the oldest said
She carried frankincense to anoint the dead
The shadows grew lighter on the road they trod
The pre light of the first new day

“Who will move the stone” the younger cried
She had fine myrrh for the one who died
The light was touching the tops of the trees
In the dawn of the first new day

“The stones been moved” sang the bloom
They  knelt and gazed in the empty tomb
The sheet lay flat on the stone inside
In the full light of the first new day

W A Adams, Three Marys