"Divine Mercy"

by Scott Zambelli 

Over the last few months, I have been thinking about the love and mercy given to us through the sacrifice of Christ.  I wanted to create some kind of piture that would somehow capture how the blood and water that was spilled from the body of Jesus was an example of his love and mercy for us.In my contemplation of this, a friend of mine told me that I should take a look at a piece of artwork called the "Divine Mercy".  At risk of showing how un-historically inclined I am in the field of art, I had to confess I did not know what they were talking about.

So, they picked up a book and found a copy of the artwork (seen to the right).  Once I saw the picture, I said, "Oh...I know this picture."

From there, I began to focus my attention on it.  I was able to research it a bit and get to know more of the meaning behind it.  As I did this, I tried to come up with my own version of this.

What I quickly realized is that I did not want to just simply "recreate" this artwork.  Instead, I was hoping to focus on the feelings I received from this picture and translate into my own artwork.  In this way, I was able to create my own version of the "Divine Mercy" and what it means to me.

I tried to imagine how I viewed Jesus in this.  I decided to focus on Jesus during the period after he was crucified, but before he had ascended.  It is also during this time, that Jesus visits with the apostles and shows his wounds to a disbelieving Thomas.

After a few sketches, I was able to determine the pose I wanted to capture and created the gray tone version above.  With this pose, there were a few things I wanted to portray.  The first was how much Christ humbled himself for us and how he gave everything for us.  To symbolize this, I decided to make Christ naked, with only his burial cloth to cover himself.

The other part I wanted to incorporate would be through the posture of Jesus.  I wanted his gift to us to appear as not only a gift of sacrifice and humility, but also a gift that was given freely, from a position of strength - not weakness.  To do this, I made sure to give Jesus a pose that conveys strength through his stance, as well as sacrifice through his displayed wounds.

Once I was happy with the layout of my art, I uploaded my gray-toned art into Photoshop and began the process of painting it. 

The coloring of this picture plays a vital role in the final layout.  Instead of drawing a direct representation of the original by having the red and blue pouring from the wound in Jesus' side, I decided to convey the colors of the blood and water through two different methods.

The first thing I chose to do was to utilize the background lighting to transition from the red to the blue.  In doing so, I also ended up with a nice purple in the transition and accidentally got the three colors of the tabernacle represented (red, blue, and purple).

The other item I decided to use was the burial cloth.  I wanted to give it bluish tints in the shadows and for the red, make the cloth smeared with blood stains.

In these ways, I tried to convey the reds and the blues of the original artwork.

Finally, for those who may be wondering...

...the phrase, "Jezu ufam tobie" is the Polish translation of "Jesus, I trust in You".  This inscription is the same as the one instructed by Jesus Christ in a vision to St. Faustina in 1931.  It was in this vision that Jesus instructed the Polish Nun  to create the image of the "Divine Mercy" and share it with the world.

As I stated earlier, my artwork is not meant to replace or improve upon the original art.  Personally, I do not even think it is possible.  It is merely my way of expressing the message of the original.  I encourage everyone to take some time and read more about the history of the original painting by clicking here.

Thanks for taking the time to visit.