This Good Friday seems a fitting day to show you what Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low believed was the “first and greatest” painting, “Descent from the Cross,” by Peter Paul Rubens:
Descent from the Cross
Daisy Low stood in front of this painting, studied the scene, imagined herself a part of it, and “wept,” moved her to tears by the suffering and death of Jesus.
Daisy loved the Baroque period, and Rubens was foremost among her favorite artists. “Descent from the Cross” is the centerpiece of a triptych that hangs in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium. Rubens began it in 1612 and concluded two years later. Daisy visited Antwerp during her second trip to Europe, in 1884. She went specifically to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady because it housed several well-known works by Rubens.
Daisy Low had an unshakeable and joyful faith in God. It carried her through hard times and it helped her make sense of her world. Her faith was a fundamental and bedrock part of her being.
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Photo from wikimedia. Quotes from Juliette Gordon Low to Mary Carter Clarke, 24 August [1884], Clarke Family Papers, MS2800/22/3, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.