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The Three Women at the Tomb
from Livres d'Images de Madame Marie
Flemish (Hainaut), 1285-1290
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 43v
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The iconography of any subject develops and changes over time. Christian iconography develops and changes too, as reflection on the Gospels and Tradition develops over time.
The iconography of the Resurrection was very slow to evolve. Unlike the Crucifixion which, because it deals with a fact of human life, the death of an individual, can be readily grasped by the human imagination and converted into images, the Resurrection is outside of human experience and, therefore, more difficult to imagine. What ought the Resurrection of Jesus to look like? How can it be graphically represented? Can it be represented at all? These are some of the questions that must have been in the minds of artists and their patrons from the time of the first Christian images.
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Chi Rho from Early Christian Roman Sarcophagus
Roman, ca. 350 AD
Vatican City, Museo Pio-Christiano
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For the most part, the early Church and its artists chose not to try to represent the Resurrection. It was alluded to symbolically, but not pictured, as for example by the wreathed Chi Ro, shown here on a sarcophagus from ca. 350 AD, now in the Vatican Museo Pio-Christiano, where the presence of the sleeping guards is a clear reference to the Resurrection.
The earliest images that directly reference the Resurrection are those that represent the Three Marys at the Tomb. This iconography visualizes the account, found in the three synoptic Gospels, of women (two in Matthew (Matthew 28:1-7), three in Mark (Mark 16:1-8) and Luke (Luke 14:1-11), who go to the tomb early on the morning after the Passover Sabbath to complete the anointing of Jesus’ body. There they find an empty tomb and an angel messenger (or messengers in Luke) who tells them that Jesus is not there, that He has risen.
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| Crucifixion, Women at the Tomb and Risen Christ Appearing to the Women from the Rabbula Gospels Syrian, c. 586 Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana MS Cod. Plut. I, 56, fol.13r |
Similar images seem to begin appearing in western Europe around the year 1000 AD. Two beautiful examples come from the Ottonian imperial scriptoria at Reichenau and a third from Fulda or Mainz.
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| Women at the Tomb from the Bamberg Apocalypse German (Reichenau), 1000-1020 Bamberg, Bamberg State Library, MS Msc.B 140, 42 |
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| The Three Women from Book of Pericopes of Heinrich II German (Reichenau), c. 1007-1012 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Clm 4452, fol. 116v |
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| The Angel Seated on the Tomb from Book of Pericopes of Heinrich II German (Reichenau), c. 1007-1012 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Clm 4452, fol. 117 |
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| Women at the Tomb from a Sacramentary German (Mainz or Fulda), ca. 1025-1050 Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum MS Ludwig V 2, fol. 19v |
All were painted during the first half of the eleventh century. Here two (LA) or three (Bamberg and Munich) women, holding pots of ointments and incense, are shown listening to the message of the angel, who is seated on the door slab. In the background is the tomb, shown as a small domed building. Inside the tomb, silhouetted against the background in the Bamberg Apocalypse and the Sacramentary is the burial cloth. In the same two manuscripts the tomb guards are shown as sleeping figures.
Similar images appeared in the sculpture of the Ottonian period. Among these are ivory carvings and the famous bronze column commissioned by Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim at the beginning of the 11th Century.
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| Ivory Relief, The Women at the Tomb German, c. 1000-1050 Dole,Musée des Beaux-Arts |
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| Bronze Relief, The Women at the Tomb from the Column of Bishop Bernward German, 1015_Hildesheim, Church of St. Mary |
During the Middle Ages
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| The Three Women at the Tomb from Psalter of Christina of Markyate English (St. Alban's), 1124-1145 Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, Page 50 |
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| Ivory Relief, The Women at the Tomb German, c. 1150-1170 Cologne, Schnütgen Museum |
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| The Angel at the Tomb German, c. 1240 Soest, Evangelical Parish Church of St. Mary on High |
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| The Three Women at the Tomb German, c. 1240 Soest, Evangelical Parish Church of St. Mary on High |
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| The Women at the Tomb from Vies de la Vierge et du Christ Italian (Naples), c. 1350 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 9561, fol. 184v |
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| Jacopo di Cione and Workshop The Women at the Tomb Italian, 1370-1371 London, National Gallery |
The Renaissance
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| Fra Angelico, The Women at the Tomb Italian, 1440-1442 Florence, Museo di San Marco |
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| Wood Carving, The Women at the Tomb Flemish, c. 1460 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum |
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| Imitator of Andrea Mantegna, The Women at the Tomb Italian, c. 1460-1555 London, National Gallery |
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| Reliquary, Women at the Tomb Flemish, 16th Century Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse |
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| Gerhard Remisch, The Women at the Tomb German, c. 1540-1542 London, Victoria and Albert Museum |
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
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Annibale Carraci, Three Women at the Tomb
Italian, 1590s
St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum
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| Benjamin West, The Women at the Tomb American, 1805 New York, Brooklyn Museum |
The Nineteenth Century
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| Oscar Gue_French, c. 1842 Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
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William Adolphe Bougereau,
Three Women at the Tomb
French, 1860-1890
Private Collection
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| James Tissot, Mary Magdalene and the Holy Women at the Tomb French, c. 1886-1894 New York, Brooklyn Museum |
However, it has been joined by a number of other images of what the Resurrection might look like, which we will explore in subsequent posts.
© M. Duffy, 2011
