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American Diptych -
The Burning Bush &
The Robe of Mercy
Acrylic on Dibond panels
h - 48" w - 30"
2021
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| The Robe of Mercy originated in haunting phrases from F. Pratt Green's Holy Week hymn text, To mock your reign/: "They did not know, as we know now, that though we suffer blame, you will your robe of mercy cast around our naked shame." This Christ, in a
fusion of Passion and Resurrection imagery, is majestic in bearing but wears the shredded garments of Passiontide suffering and
manifests the wounds of his Crucifixion. In the gesture of healing described in the hymn, he casts the purple cloak "over" the viewer - the token of his own humiliation transformed into a sign of his love and mercy. The color of Christ's cloak is picked up in the
purple bougainvillea, a vine sometimes called the Judas tree. And the bread and wine of the Eucharist have become, on this desolate street, a roll and a cup of coffee discarded on the pavement.
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