The Revered Gaze: The Medieval Imaginary of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"

<p>This essay investigates medieval cathedrals, the Cyclorama of Jerusalem panorama painted in 1895, and Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ as distinct but related ways of experiencing the Crucifixion, or Christ's Passion. Inscribed in each of these case studies is a notion of the "revered gaze," a way of encountering and making sense of images that are intended to be spectacular in form and content. While distinct media clearly present unique possibilities for altering the nature of the Passion narrative, I argue in this essay that there are remarkable consistencies in the aesthetics and practices of the crucifixion as a transhistorical story.</p>