Christ and the Apostles 1827

Curator: This is a print from the series, "Christ and the Apostles," by Ferdinand Ruscheweyh. What strikes you first about it? Editor: The halo seems almost apologetic, so faint. And is that a saw he's carrying? It all feels… surprisingly domestic. Curator: Legend says that Simon the Zealot, depicted here, was martyred by being sawn in half. It’s about tools of labor becoming instruments of oppression and death. Editor: Right. It’s unsettling how easily those lines blur. And the way Ruscheweyh renders Simon, the drape of his robes, it's classical, idealized, yet he carries this brutal reminder. Curator: He embodies the tension between the sacred and the profane, a timeless struggle, I think. Editor: Absolutely, a tension that continues to resonate in our understanding of faith, work, and resistance.