Christ Crucified between the two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses' 1760 - 1765

Curator: Standing before us is a drawing attributed to George Bickham II, dating roughly from 1760 to 1765. It’s titled "Christ Crucified between the two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses'", and you can find it here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Whoa, heavy. It feels almost swallowed by darkness, like a memory struggling to surface. All those stark lines, those anguished faces. It’s intense. Curator: Bickham, operating in the mid-18th century, was working within a well-established visual culture regarding depictions of crucifixion. Think about the theatre of it all, the public spectacle designed to enforce religious and political authority. Editor: Yes! It's all swirling around the figures on the crosses. Are they spectators, or perpetrators, or just souls caught in the fallout? There is very fine shading with some areas where no light penetrates the dark hatching lines. Curator: That’s the real power here. Rather than focusing on a serene, idealized Christ, Bickham plunges us into the chaos and emotional turmoil surrounding the event. This piece reveals more of an introspective approach of grief and loss and raises big questions of guilt. Editor: Absolutely. It's like we're not meant to passively observe; we're implicated. The rough charcoal or pencil—maybe even some oil pastel work as well— it's all a bit smudged which amplifies that sense of unease and discomfort. Is there something cathartic in its honesty though, a raw attempt to comprehend incomprehensible suffering? Curator: That gets me thinking about how such imagery functions within society. How the constant exposure to scenes of suffering shaped people's sensibilities and ideas about power. There's this interesting tension, this drawing, between devotional object and indictment of social order. Editor: True, and I see the value in keeping art that makes you uncomfortable, that unsettles expectations. This picture might be able to prompt dialogues which could make us more human… or perhaps show us just how capable humanity is in causing destruction to others and how we’re affected when we have to deal with such horrific events. Curator: Precisely. It offers, if nothing else, a glimpse into the artistic representation of humanity, faith, and moral struggle. Editor: I’m walking away from it pondering the artist's choice to capture this moment and considering all those countless perspectives existing in a world in any era that we’ll never know.