SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

this renewal which acknowledges the past with the contemporary which will initiate a new and authentic Coptic art.”

cm wide by 128 cm high and the smallest measures 63 cm wide by 127 cm high. Ms. Nakhla was born in Alexandria in 1912 and died in 1977. She was a graduate from School of Fine Arts in Cairo. She was awarded a scholarship to study in France from 1934-1939 at the “Ecole Nationale Superièure des Beaux Arts,” Paris, France. She went back to France in 1949 and 1951 for further study. Ms. Nakhla painted several hundred themes displayed in 30 countries including Egypt. The French State bought one of her paintings. She was the first Egyptian impressionist painter and in 1975 she ranked among the 10 best painters at the “Women’s Painters’” exhibition in Cairo. Ms. Nakhla had a bent for drawing and painting since her childhood. From the age of six she would decorate her letters to her little friends with flowers and other motifs of her creation. At the age of 14 she was painting countryside scenes. She particularly enjoyed drawing portraits of her friends. In her early teens she received many school of awards for her art. Marguerite Nakhla has been quoted as saying (translated), “One does not know why one loves [painting] . . . it happens naturally. As a small child I was always drawing and painting and admired those who painted nature . . . ” Ms. Nakhla also attempted engraving and painting on wood. St. Mark’s Coptic Museum exhibits one of these pieces which is a replica of St. Mary and the Divine Child in the Ascension niche of the 7 th century Bawit Church now in the Coptic Museum.

The themes of Ms. Nakhla’s folkloric paintings in St. Mark’s Museum are: The Ten Virgins, Judas, The Last Supper, Jesus among the Wise, Baptism and the Great Catch. The themes of Ms Nakhla’s other Coptic folkloric paintings are: Good Friday, Lord, Prayer, The Candle Seller, Church covered with Sand, and Mount Olives. While Coptic folkloric art does not have to abide by church rites and the rules of iconography, this style of art is a close reminder of early Coptic iconography. For example, the simplicity of the lines and particularly the manner in which the clothes are draped without the folds or shadows and with no allusion to body shapes such as in the lines that mark arms and legs in Neo-Coptic and other Orthodox icons. It is, in my opinion, a mistake to describe this artistic expression as “simple” and at worst “primitive” for there is a genuine expression of form and essence in its apparent “simplicity.” Conversely, one could also ask: by what criteria does one determine that an artistic form is more sophisticated than another? As Ms. Nakhla so clearly stated the use of colour is “...not only to please the eye but to draw spirituality [out of the viewer].” I would suggest that this is a key the measure of the “sophistication” of a religious painting. Art critics have observed about Ms. Nakhla’s work that her painting is not only a story but a thought. Her paintings therefore have a didactic role as well as the aesthetic component. Critics have also noted that Ms. Nakhla has the gift of human commentary and documentary. This is vividly portrayed in the painting titled “The Last Supper.” In this work, she transcends the historical moment of the Last Supper as the Eucharistic Table of only the wine and the bread with a well-filled table - reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous 19 th century painting with the same title- that could more correctly be interpreted as the supper before the Last Supper.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter Between 1960-1970 she won bronze, silver and gold medals for her “folkloric” paintings in international exhibitions in Egypt and Europe. Pierre du Bourguet, curator of the Louvre Museum wrote to Ms Nakhla about her “folkloric” art in 1957 (translated from French):

“.... your art joins together the best of ancient Coptic style and the best modern style with a genuine religious expression. It is

12