Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
Influence of a Painting
Having finished his formal education, in 1719 he set out on a Grand Tour of Europe. It was during his tour that Zinzendorf visited the art gallery in Dusseldorf where he became transfixed with Dominico Feti’s work Ecce Homo (“Behold, the man”). He was arrested with what he saw in the painting representing Christ, “into every lineament of whose face the Christian artist had painted Love. As the nobleman saw the pierced hands, the bleeding brow, and wounded side; as he slowly scanned the couplet,
‘All this I did for thee,
What hast thou done for Me?’
a new revelation of the claim of Jesus Christ upon every life upon which His grace had been outpoured flashed upon him. Hour after hour passed as he sat intently gazing upon the face the Suffering One. As the day waxed apace, and the lingering rays of sunlight...fell upon the bowed form of Zinzendorf, weeping and sobbing out his devotion to the Christ Who had not only saved his soul, but conquered his heart...” (The Dawn, Vol. 1, Apr. 1924-Mar. 1925, p. 188). “There and then the young Count asked the slaughtered Lamb to draw him into ’the fellowship of His suffering’ and to open up a life of service to Him” (Count Zinzendorf, Great Men of the Church Series, No. 4).
