The RETURN of the PRODIGAL FRESCO

Benjamin Long says little about his fresco of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, preferring to let paint and plaster speak for him. Asked what message he wanted to portray, the artist smiled and said simply, “Forgiveness.”

Visitors to Montreat College’s Chapel of the Prodigal marvel at the dramatic intensity and realistic detail of the artist’s large painting.  Long brings to life Jesus’s story about a wayward son who ran through his inheritance in riotous living, only to return home to a father’s love and forgiveness. A modern day Renaissance man, Long works in the same “true fresco” method used on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The biblical theme has been painted by some of the most famous names in art history.  In Rembrandt’s painting of the parable, the father stands over his kneeling son, placing his hand as a blessing on the youth’s head. Long imagines a more emotional encounter between the patriarch and the prodigal. The old man kneels beside his wraith-like son, one hand clutching the youth’s hand over his heart and the other raised in thanksgiving. To the right, the older brother looks on in anger at this happy reunion.  Across the courtyard, the mother stands with the female servants, her hands clasped to her bosom as she senses the tension between her sons.

In the background, two servants butcher the calf for the banquet. A small dog barks at the bottom. Three pigs root in the foreground, a reminder of the herds that the Prodigal tended in his poverty. The artist spent years in preparation to paint the Montreat fresco, with drawings, oil paintings and sketches. Every gesture, every detail was worked out in a series of drawings, which were then enlarged into larger-than-life cartoons. Long and the crew traced the outlines against the wall by “pouncing” a bag containing red dust through perforations in the cartoons. Long then redrew the lines using the dots to create a “sinopia” drawing. Starting from the top of a three-tiered scaffolding, Long painted each day on a freshly applied patch of plaster. Below his crew worked grinding expensive pigments from clays and minerals imported from France and Italy to mix the next day’s colors.