Sacco and Vanzetti

This painting I saw last August at the MOMA in New York has been on my mind a lot. The commentary on the audio-guide was not entirely satisfactory, it sounded as if something was amiss, as if the commentator was not fully knowledgeable. His interpretation was only historical and I cannot help but feel that he missed the symbolism used by Ben Shahn.

If I look first at the three men behind the coffins, I notice that two of them are holding lilies, particularly white lilies. Now white lilies are the symbolic flower used at Easter, symbolic of the Passion of Christ, but also in a more general way of all martyrs' passion. Indeed, these two men may be merely regular undertakers, with their top hats, black frock-coats and the customary long faces imposed by any death. But standing on both sides of what appears to be a judge, they evoke the Trinity.

There has been more than one Trinity painting, and the most famous is probably Andrei Roubleev's Icon of the Angels' Visit to Abraham. In the same way, Ben Shahn has given iconic dimension to the painting. The judge with his red sash confirms again the martyrdom, red being the color of martyrs in Eastern Orthodox iconography. As it is, one can think of the Roman centurion standing by Christ's cross and confessing that yes, they have killed the Son of God.

The judge also appears to be losing his life. Has he realized his mistake? His skin color is in the same tone as that of Sacco and Vanzetti's in their rigor mortis.

The two columns in the background stand as vertically as the two coffins are horizontal. All these black and white lines (columns, stairs, the border above the poster) echo the architectural dimension of the three persons standing above the coffins. The same tone of brown has been used for the closed door of what one can imagine to be the court, and the coffins. The background, also neatly delineated, remains in the distance and the eye is really drawn to the three characters standing above the coffins, more than to the coffins and the sacrificed Sacco and Vanzetti.

I am still at a loss at understanding the meaning of both the poster, except that it would appear to be someone swearing to tell the Truth, and only the Truth, as well a the column-style lamppost on the side, which, by its constrasting color theme, seems out of context.

Tempera on canvas, Ben Shahn, 1931-32.