The Great Painters' Gospel / Pictures Representing Scenes and Incidents in the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ

by Henry Turner Bailey

THE BEGINNING OF PUBLIC SERVICE.

Bida, Plate 46, illustrates John 1:35. "Behold the Lamb of God," said John to two of his disciples, who straightway left John and followed Jesus. Grünewald, Plate 48, represents Jesus meditating as he walks by the sea alone, possibly before he had chosen his disciples, but more likely after the people threatened to make him a King (John 6:15), for it is evening near the sea of Galilee.

Veronese, Plate 50, transforms the modest wedding at Cana into a gorgeous Venetian Feast, to which "Jesus also was bidden, and his disciples," "and the Mother of Jesus was there." (John 2:1-2.) They may all be discovered in the central part of the picture, but to the mind of Veronese the miracle of the wine seems to be of but secondary importance.