The celebrated Spanish artist Enrique Simonet Lombardo (1866-1927) created ‘Flevit super illam’, aka Then He Wept, in 1892, which is considered one of the most important paintings of the late 19th-century Spanish religious realism. The title and story of the painting are inspired by a profound text in the Gospel of Saint Luke (19:41): “Videns Jesus civitatem flevit super illam”, translated to: “When he came near, he saw the city and wept for it”. In the scene that is impossible to imagine being more prophetic, Jesus is standing at dusk on the Mount of Olives, looking across the valley towards the magnificent buildings of the Second Temple, and foretells its destruction at the hands of the Roman armies in 70 AD.
Instead of the theatricality that is common in the Baroque or Renaissance, Simonet’s point of view is on the other side of the traveling assembly. The disciples, who are shown in profile, bring the viewer into the canvas behind their shoulders, as if he were looking at Christ. The disciples are shown in various moods, from wonder to thought to seriousness, as they look at the city or at their Master’s strange behavior.
Moreover, Flevit super illam’s style of devotional painting of the church differs from most other academic religious paintings. In that, Simonet has been so committed to modern scientific naturalism and topographical exactitude. The European studios were the standard model for creating a standard holy landscape: Simonet was in Rome as a pensioned student for his third and fourth years, spending an enormous amount of time traveling around Palestine. He noted the light and vegetation (especially the twisted olive trees), the mountain’s altitude, and the facial type of the local peoples he encountered, which he considered ethnographically appropriate.
Besides that, Simonet’s avoidance of the excessive use of divine attributes (halos, angels flying here and there, etc.) and his focus on the very human qualities of Jesus (his humanity, his emotions, etc.) were clearly influenced by the intellectual climate of the day. In short, it expresses the rationalist, humanizing conception of Jesus, which was popularized all over Europe by the French philosopher Ernest Renan in his controversial Life of Jesus (1863). In 1892, he won a First Class medal at the International Fine Arts Exhibition in Madrid, and in 1896, he won one at the Exhibition of Fine Arts and Crafts in Barcelona, where he became a great name in Spanish realism thanks to his low horizon, the appropriate lighting, and high-quality painting.
this painting demonstrates christ and his disciples. initially christ was heavily persecuted by the romans and the general pontius pilate. and this painting almost has a mythical quality to it, showing jesus preaching his values and message by standing upon a mountain top, the painting evokes a feeling of redemption and forgiveness in the viewer, and christ is presented as a helper and healer among the men, and someone who rose to godlike status from a humble background. it embodies the quote " dont walk behind me i may lose you, dont walk in front of me i may not follow, just walk beside me, beside me"
