Attributed To Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867) - The Death Of Judas - Oil On Panel

This beautiful and dramatic painting, attributed to Théodore Rousseau, depicts the suicide of Judas, which occurred on the very day of Christ's crucifixion. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, handing him over to the members of the Sanhedrin in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. Once Christ was condemned and brought before Pontius Pilate, Judas was overcome with remorse. He then tried to atone for his sin by returning the money to the high priests: "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood" (Matthew 27:3-4). They replied, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." Faced with this rejection and the enormity of his sin, Judas sank into despair and went to hang himself. At the Last Supper, Jesus had already foretold this tragedy: "Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!" “It would have been better for that man if he had never been born” (Matthew 26:24). Saint Thomas Aquinas offered a decisive interpretation of Judas’s fate: he was not so much lost through his betrayal as through his despair, that is, through his refusal to believe in God’s mercy. He contrasts him with the apostle Peter, who denied Christ that same night but, instead of despairing, asked for forgiveness and was raised from the dead. It is precisely this tragic moment that Théodore Rousseau sought to depict: Judas, one foot dangling over the edge, suspended between life and death, at the very moment he gives himself over to his despair. The intense reds in the composition accentuate the character’s inner turmoil. His gaze turns away from the horizon where the cross stands, as if he still refused the possibility of forgiveness. The subject is rare in painting. Far from the traditional representations of Judas showing him betraying Christ in Gethsemane or receiving the thirty pieces of silver, Rousseau here chooses the most intimate and tragic moment: that of the definitive break between Judas and hope.