Virgin with Divine Infant - Crucifixion 1942

Konstantinos Parthenis made this vast painting, *Virgin with Divine Infant - Crucifixion*, with oil on canvas. The surface is so muted, like a memory, or an icon worn smooth by the touch of time. The colors here are all hushed, sandy and washed out like something seen through mist. Look closely and you can see thin paint layers, almost like watercolor washes, creating soft, blurred edges. Parthenis is really playing with the push and pull between representation and abstraction. The figures are there, but they are dissolving, fading into the light. The real drama happens in the top right corner. See how the figures around the cross are almost rubbed away into the background? This evokes a sense of sorrow, as if the scene is gradually being erased. Like with El Greco, with Parthenis painting becomes a way of capturing not just what we see, but how we feel, the mysteries we grapple with.