Blind Bartimaeus through the Eyes of Five Painters, by Mark C. Watney

Christ and Bartimaeus, by Julia Stankova (Bulgaria) 2017. Click on image for artist site.

1. Julia Stankova’s Bart

At first, we hardly notice him:
that famous blind beggar
from St. Marks

But then there he is…in the top left corner of the frame,
squatting half-naked
as he flings off his cloak at the Healer’s approach

.

Yet strangely positioned … as if waiting to be troubled
 by both the crowd and Jesus;
 as if the painter was there

just before the story began;
 just before his howl  shatters
 the picture we see here 
 
 But more strange than this are the eyes:
 the black dilated pupils of the crowd
framed dead centre
​
over which he and Jesus
 (from opposite ends of the painting) 
are about to see each other for the first time

Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus, by William Blake (USA) c. 1800

II. William Blake’s Bart

​Blake’s Bart too…
flings aside his cloak
and approaches the Healer
almost naked
​
And Jesus , clad in white,
 reaches out a horizontal arm to Bart 
 with no attempt to touch;
 as if preparing for some magic
 to pass between them.

Blind Man, by Rihard Jakopič (Slovenia) 1926

III. Rihard Jakopič’s Bart
​
Rihard Jokipic’s Bart 
 is blind all over:
 
Manacled in hands…and 
blinded with an eye
as Marvell would say

His body writhing out of his tunic
as the healer approaches:
​
wanting more than eyesight:
wanting his whole body 
to see again.

Close-up of Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus, by Eric Gill (England) 1934. Moorfields Eye Hospital. The words here, ’Domine, ut videam’ (Lord, that I may see!). ceridwen / CC BY-SA 2.0

IV. Eric Gill’s Bart

Eric Gill’s Jesus presses his thumbs down hard
into Bart’s sockets,
determined to push out the blindness…
along with the blood and tears running down his cheeks

Like clay on the wheel
Bart buckles …and bends his head back
under the fierce will
of the Healer:

Go — he says
Your faith has made you well.

Ian Maclaren interpretation of poet Walt Whitman, on page 46 of the September 1922 Shadowland, photography by Francis Bruguière (England) 1922

V. Walt Whitman’s Civil War Bart

Yawping like a mad-man from the roof-tops of Jericho,
the voice cries out for a touch
to break the orthodoxy
of his inherited deformity:

Blind loving wrestling touch, 
sheath’d hooded sharp-tooth’d touch!*
 - he howls

And Christ’s voice brakes through softly;
and in the terrible stillness, asks:

What do you want me to do for you?

But Bart’s eyes are still closed: 
his face is pale,
he dares not look*

What do you want me to do for you?
  repeats the Christ

I want , said Bart, 
 to see.

Mark C. Watney

*Song of Myself, 29.
*The Wound Dresser, 3.1

​Mark was born and raised in South Africa and immigrated to America in 1977 when a humble peanut-farmer was still president. He travelled and worked for a few years in Turkey, Japan, and India before returning to the States as a high school English teacher at Belmont High near downtown LA. Halfway through the journey of his life he earned his PhD at the University of Texas at Dallas and has been teaching at Sterling College in Kansas since 2006. At the age of 57 he began publishing stuff in literary journals for the first time and is now smitten with the poetry bug at age 60. Recent Publications:  Acumen, Dappled Things (First place, Jacques Maritain Prize for Nonfiction), Saint Katherine Review, Front Porch Review, Presence, Cider Press Review, and others.