Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion to visit Rome for the Jubilee - an event of international importance

In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee year, the Dicastery for Evangelization has revealed details of the fourth Exhibition in the "Jubilee is culture" series … the famous White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall will go on show in Rome.

The opening of the Exhibition, which is of major international importance, is scheduled for November 27, at the new Museo del Corso - Museum Center, in the Palazzo Cipolla, in Rome. The painting by the Belarusian artist, which will be in Italy for the first time ever to celebrate the Holy Year, will be open to visitors until January 27, 2025. Admission will be free, and the exhibition is open to the public, every day, from 10am to 8pm,

The White Crucifixion is widely recognized for its extraordinary integration of religious and symbolic elements using a deeply evocative visual language. Its presence in Rome represents a unique opportunity for art lovers and scholars to contemplate a masterpiece of huge artistic impact. Marc Chagall, born in Lëzna, Belarus, in 1887 and who died in 1985, was a Russian painter who naturalized as a French citizen, and is considered one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. Forced to leave his homeland, Chagall always maintained a deep connection with his origins, even though he knew he could not settle there. His work is famous for paintings that depict dreamlike and fantasy scenarios, the fruit of a personal style which distanced itself from the artistic trends of the time, drawing on the avant-garde and then going beyond that movement to create his own style.

The White Crucifixion, painted in 1938, represents a fundamental turning point for Chagall. The work not only highlights the image of Christ as a martyr, but dramatically draws attention to the persecution and suffering of the Jewish people in the 1930s. The painting illustrates the suffering of both the Jews and Jesus, depicting violent conflicts, such as the burning of synagogues. In the center, Jesus is depicted crucified, adorned with a prayer shawl, symbolically represented as a Jew. The White Crucifixion reveals influences from 14th-century Italian art and has a significant coloristic value. The thematic links with Renaissance religious painting, particularly with the works of Michelangelo, and references to Rembrandt's Raising of the Cross, enrich the meaning of the work. Around Jesus, three biblical patriarchs and a matriarch are depicted, dressed in traditional Jewish clothing. On either side of the cross, Chagall illustrates the devastation of the pogroms: on the left, a sacked village can be seen as refugees flee by boat, while three bearded figures flee on foot, one of whom clutches the Torah. On the right, a synagogue and the Torah Ark are in flames, while below a mother comforts her child. Together with Pablo Picasso's Guernica, the White Crucifixion is one of the most eloquent condemnations of war and hatred of the 20th century, with a message that is still dramatically relevant.

The Crucified Christ

The crucified Christ is a symbol of Judaism. Depicted with his head forward, his lower body is covered by the Tallit, the shawl which Jewish men wear during prayer. Around his head, the traditional halo, white in this painting, symbolizes the holiness of Christ. Above the cross, the Latin inscription INRI appears with the same inscription in Hebrew. The ladder leaning against the cross takes on the symbolic meaning of the union between heaven and earth, man and God. Finally, the crucified Christ is illuminated by a beam of divine white light which illuminates the cross like a spotlight on stage.

Scenes of destruction, death and violence

Around the crucified Christ there are scenes of destruction, death and violence which are all interconnected. At the top are three men and a woman floating in the air. They appear desperate: a couple are crying with their hands over their faces, while the other two, in prayer, ask for the violence to end as soon as possible. On the left, a group of armed soldiers advances waving red flags. These soldiers symbolize the men who took part in the pogroms, the terrible anti-Semitic episodes of violence which, between 1881 and 1921, affected the Jews in Russia (even after the Second World the violence continued against the survivors of the Holocaust).

Houses in flames

Immediately above the group of soldiers, the artist depicts houses on fire. Beyond the fire, the destruction can be seen in the disorder of the scene and in the depiction of the houses upside down. In addition, three victims of the pogroms are depicted, kneeling afflicted.

The ship with fugitives

The artist painted a boat full of Jewish refugees who are trying to drop anchor and disembark in safety. It is a scene which is still very relevant and portrays people’s escape from their homelands in the hope of saving their lives and living in parts of the world not afflicted by war and devastation.

The symbols of Jewish culture

In the lower left, in the foreground, three men are depicted walking away carrying objects with them. Amid the atrocious acts of violence, the Word of God must be saved. The last in line, dressed in dark blue, has the Torah, the Jewish Law, in his arms. In the lower center is the Menorah, the Jewish candelabrum with seven branches (even though here only six are visible) which keeps vigil over Jesus on the cross. To the right of Chagall’s White Crucifixion, the viewer can see a scroll burning, producing white flames which reach up to the cross: these are the books of Holy Scripture. Finally, in the upper right, there is a burning synagogue representing all the synagogues which burned in Germany during the Second World War. Within this scene, a man tries to save the scrolls of the Jewish Law from the building, while in the upper part of the building you can see the two tablets of the Ten Commandments and the Star of David, two other typical symbols of the Jewish religion.

The profound spiritual meaning of the work

The profound spiritual meaning of the work offers the visitor an extraordinary opportunity for meditation, making the enjoyment of this masterpiece not only a great artistic experience, but also an important opportunity for introspection and reflection on the mystery of the cross, a symbol of hope, on redemption and resurrection after the atrocities, and on the ultimate victory over death.