Holy Week Art Series - The Accursed Fig Tree

 

  

 

Some call Tuesday of Holy Week "Fig Tuesday".

 

Here are the biblical accounts from the Douay-Rheims bible:

"And the next day, when they came out from Bethania, he was hungry.And when he had seen afar off a fig tree having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find anything on it. And when he was come to it, he found nothing but leaves: for it was not the time for figs. And answering, he said to it: May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more for ever. And his disciples heard it." (Mark 11:12-14)

"And in the morning, returning into the city, he was hungry. And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and he saith to it: May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And immediately the fig tree withered away. And the disciples seeing it wondered, saying: How is it immediately withered away?" (Matt.21:18-20)

There are many interpretations of these scriptural accounts. I have read that some of the early Church Fathers saw this event as a symbolic reversal of The Fall that took place in the Garden of Eden.  The idea is that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that our first parents ate from was not an apple tree but a fig tree.  (This fits with Adam using fig leaves to cover himself.)  Thus Jesus, through this living parable, is showing that he will reverse The Fall.

Above we have another of James Tissot's inspiring 19th century artworks from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.  This one is called The Accursed Fig Tree. And, like others in this collection, it is small (8-3/8 X 11 inches) and an opaque water color over graphite on gray wove paper.