Fr Patrick visits Tate Britain to reflect on one of the most striking—and once controversial—religious paintings of the Victorian era: Christ in the House of His Parents by Sir John Everett Millais.
This painting, also known as The Carpenter’s Shop, is a cornerstone of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and one of the best-recognised works of that period. Millais, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, painted the Holy Family in a raw and radically naturalistic way, departing from classical, idealised portrayals. His goal, and that of his fellow Brotherhood members, was to revive artistic styles from before the High Renaissance—before Raphael, after whom the movement was named.
At the centre stands a red-haired, scruffy teenage Jesus, presenting a wounded hand to his kneeling mother. He looks much like a child of the Victorian era—ordinary, vulnerable. And yet the stigmata-like wound, along with marks on his feet, foreshadow the Passion. His expression carries not anguish but quiet resolve, accepting the destiny ahead.
Though now admired, the painting caused outrage at the time. Charles Dickens, writing in his journal Household Words, launched a scathing attack. Standing outside the Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury, Fr Patrick reads from Dickens’ article published on 15 June 1850.
Dickens' fury reminds us: even brilliant minds can misjudge art. What one generation sees as shocking, the next may find profoundly moving. Time has softened the painting’s controversy, and perhaps revealed its reverence. Our aesthetic tastes evolve, and so does our faith.
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