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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Behold the Man: Christ as the Man of Sorrows by Jacobello del Bonomo

Christ as the Man of Sorrows by Jacobello del Bonomo

Behold the Man

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At the National Gallery, Muslim journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik discovers a brown Christ.

Muslim journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik scrutinises a 14th-century Italian painting at the National Gallery - because this Christ, unlike most others, is brown-skinned.

For Muslim journalist and commentator Abdul-Rehman Malik, when it came to selecting a painting at the National Gallery for his Essay, his choice had everything to do with skin colour: Christ as the Man of Sorrows by the 14th century Italian painter Jacobello del Bonomo is brown, rather than white and blue-eyed like so many other depictions of Jesus in Western art. Abdul-Rehman’s joy over this discovery proved short-lived – but the painting prompted him to reflect on how Jesus is seen in Islam, and how he as a Muslim, who does not believe that Christ died on the cross, can relate to this image of suffering. 

For this Holy Week series, BBC Radio 3 has invited five people to choose a painting of Christ’s passion or resurrection at the National Gallery in London and make it the starting point for their Essay.

Image © National Gallery by kind permission.

The series producer is Kristine Pommert for CTVC.

The Essay: Behold the Man

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Essays for Holy Week inspired by paintings at the National Gallery in London.

BBC Radio 3 has invited five people to choose a painting of Christ's Passion or Resurrection at the National Gallery in London and make it the starting point for their essay.

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