What artwork represents best the face of compassion?

February 19, 2019 12:50 PM

In the book the Compassionate Mind, it recommends that someone who wants to live a gentler and more compassionate life, have a go-to image, a face of compassion, they can visualize when they need to step into a safer, more loving mindspace. So I'd like to ask folks, what painting, photo, sculpture best depicts for you the comforting gentleness of compassion?
posted by storybored to Human Relations (23 answers total)

Not an artwork per se, but "how would Fred Rogers handle this situation?"
posted by anastasiav at 12:52 PM on February 19, 2019 [8 favorites]

Pietà is a good start
posted by thelonius at 12:53 PM on February 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

Personally, I am drawn to the various faces of Buddha. In fact, there is a "Buddha of Compassion" -- so you may want to google images for that, and see if any of them speak to you.
posted by Jade Dragon at 1:00 PM on February 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt
posted by tackypink at 1:00 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Shiva Natarajar, Chola period. A combination of compassion and momento mori.
posted by jadepearl at 1:11 PM on February 19, 2019

Kwan Yin (various spellings), known as the Goddess of Compassion.
posted by Lexica at 1:23 PM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

For me, if I need a compassion moment, I listen to Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. So moving!
posted by rw at 1:26 PM on February 19, 2019

A picture of a dog's face. Pure love and acceptance.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 1:41 PM on February 19, 2019 [7 favorites]

I think Bouguereau captures the face of compassion in his works. Charity, Innocence
posted by Gable Oak at 1:43 PM on February 19, 2019

Yes, any photo of a dog gently looking into the camera = utmost vision of compassion for me.
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:43 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Mary Cassatt, The Child's Bath
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:54 PM on February 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

For me, it's the pictures of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as created by Brother Mickey McGrath:

Our Lady of Light
Our Lady of Guadalupe
posted by tuesdayschild at 2:10 PM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I am an atheist, was raised Methodist, but many years of Catholic schooling mean my go-to figure of calm and compassion is Our Lady of Guadalupe.
posted by assenav at 2:20 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

I don't choke-up easily, but this photograph does it for me. It's a picture of a man cradling his elderly dog, who suffered from arthritis. The dog liked to go in the water, because the water provided some buoyancy and gave him some relief from the arthritis. You can read more about it here.
posted by alex1965 at 4:25 PM on February 19, 2019 [9 favorites]

Seconding Lexica: Guan Yin. I like this description: "One goes to Guan Yin for relief from feelings of self-hatred. She is a little like an ideal friend or family member, an imaginary sister or mother. She suggests alternatives to despising oneself. She knows that benevolence towards others has to begin with self-acceptance. Her kindly eyes and smile have a habit of making one cry – for as we know from films, the moment one breaks down isn’t always or even mostly when one is facing overt hostility, rather when, after a period of hardship, one finally encounters kindness and space to admit to the difficulties one has been labouring with in stoic lonely silence for too long. One can be weak with Guan Yin, she isn’t impressed by the normal worldly criteria of success, there is no shame in crying in front of her and admitting the scale of one’s distress. She has the measure of the difficulties involved in trying to lead a halfway decent ordinary life."
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:40 PM on February 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

This might be too heart wrenching for what you want, but the photo of David Kirby’s father cradling his son, near death from AIDS, has always spoken of deep compassion and grief to me.
posted by FencingGal at 5:17 PM on February 19, 2019

I saw this picture, "Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath" in National Geographic when I was kid. It's lived with me ever since. I don't know that I've seen it since that first time but it's exactly as I remember it. The mother cradles her severely deformed adult daughter in a traditional Japanese bath. The tenderness on the mother's face is stunning. The daughter is at once humanized and dignified by her mother's gaze.
posted by MissPitts at 6:19 PM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

This picture of a volunteer tenderly bathing a rescued dog that was paralyzed due to a blood-borne parasite.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:39 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a small print of the photograph called Grace of a man saying a prayer over a humble meal; it hangs over my desk at home and I look at it a couple of times a day. Growing up in Minnesota I saw the image a lot, and it reminds me to be grateful.

(Of course, Wikipedia's version of the picture's history adds some spice to the story, which just makes it more human to me.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:02 PM on February 19, 2019

Käthe Kollwitz
posted by brujita at 9:45 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

That version of Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother where the baby is nursing (4th picture.) That is Compassion as a gritty, battle hardened protective force.
posted by glasseyes at 5:31 AM on February 20, 2019

Through it's music, Sleeping at Last's "Fear" gets me there. It has a wonderful way of turning painful emotions into peaceful ones. I think it might be helpful, since once you've felt your emotions get unpretzeled by some music, you can learn to cultivate that without the music (though I still hear the key change when I think of it).
posted by snerson at 9:39 AM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I like Caravaggio's painting of St. Francis in Ecstasy, for the expression on the angel's face.
posted by praemunire at 9:41 AM on February 20, 2019