White Crucifixion

A crucified Christ, wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl, hangs at the center while around him rage the disasters of his own people - a synagogue and Torah scrolls aflame, a village overrun, refugees fleeing by boat and on foot, a mother shielding her child. Marc Chagall painted the White Crucifixion in 1938 as Nazi persecution intensified, recasting Christ as a Jewish martyr and a witness to his people's suffering. Now in the Art Institute of Chicago, it is among the most powerful protest paintings of the century - a grief-stricken plea against the violence engulfing European Jewry.