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Andrea Mantegna, Lamentation Over the Dead Christ Italian, c. 1483 Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera |
"After this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus
and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by."
Excerpt from the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John
(John 19:92-42)
The Gospel reading for the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord's Passion
From the late afternoon of Good Friday until the evening of Holy Saturday the Church keeps prayerful, quiet vigil. The tabernacles are empty, the altars are bare, no Mass is celebrated. We remember the second day (from sundown to sundown) of the Passion, the day on which Jesus’ body lies in the tomb. We ponder the sacrifice and await what we know is the joyful outcome.
Probably the most astonishing image of the second of these types, the Dead Christ, comes from the brush of Andrea Mantegna, one of the great north Italian painters of the Quattrocento. Often called the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, it shows the body of Jesus, depicted in excruciating detail, in extreme foreshortening, with the nail-pierced feet immediately before our eyes. It is barely a Lamentation, receiving the title only because of the partial inclusion of two people, a man and a woman, at the extreme left edge. The woman is sometimes identified as Mary, but I am doubtful about this. Rather, I think these are two older people of Mantegna’s era and not the richest of his contemporaries either. The woman is shown wiping her eyes, the other figure (presumably a man) is barely visible in profile. This startling image, combining the 1st-century corpse with 15th-century people, still startles us as it must have startled his contemporaries.
This image, not idealized, detailed, even brutal, became a model for other artists to follow. And, although it was never a popular image, there were followers. Among them were other artists with a realistic, almost scientific bent: Carpaccio, Hans Holbein the Younger, Philippe de Champaigne, Giuseppe Sammartino and others.
In these images we are presented with “just the facts”, a dead body, a cadaver.
Artists have done this also. They have wondered, as we do, about what was happening on that second day. Taking their guide from the phrase in the Apostles Creed “He descended into Hell” some have imagined Jesus freeing Adam, Eve and the righteous ancestors from their bondage in Limbo. Others have imagined the Body of Jesus simply lying in the tomb. Still others have imagined the Body of Jesus tended by angels, who console and prepare Him for the Resurrection. Last year we looked at the first of these.1 This year we will look at the second and third images.
This image, not idealized, detailed, even brutal, became a model for other artists to follow. And, although it was never a popular image, there were followers. Among them were other artists with a realistic, almost scientific bent: Carpaccio, Hans Holbein the Younger, Philippe de Champaigne, Giuseppe Sammartino and others.
In these images we are presented with “just the facts”, a dead body, a cadaver.
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| Carpaccio, The Dead Christ Italian, c.1520 Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berliln |
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Hans Holbein the Younger, The Dead Christ in the Tomb German, 1521 Basel, Kunstmuseum |
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| Zacharias Hegewald, The Dead Christ in the Tomb German, c. 1630 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum |
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Philippe de Champaigne, The Dead Christ French, Prior to 1654 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
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| Jean Delcour, The Dead Christ Flemish, 1696 Liege, Cathedral of Saint Paul |
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Giuseppe Sammartino, Dead Christ in a Shroud Italian, 1753 Naples, Church of Santa Maria della Pieta dei Sangro |
The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw a flurry of this imagery all over Europe. This may perhaps be the result of an increased interest in death as a physical phenomenon that accompanied the rise of modern medical science that was taking place at the same time.
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| Eduard Adrian Dussek. The Dead Christ in the Tomb Slovak, 1873 Vienna, Belvedere Museum |
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| Wilhelm Truebner, Christ in the Tomb German, 1874 Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Jean-Jacques Henner, Jesus in the Tomb French, 1879 Paris, Musée d'Orsay |
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| Alphonse Legros, The Dead Christ French, 1888 Paris, Musée d'Orsay |
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| Henri Levi, The Dead Christ French, c. 1893 Villefranche-sur-Saone, Musée Paul Din |
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| Alexandre Charpentier, Covered Christ French, 1895 Paris, Musée d'Orsay |
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| Gabriel Ferrier, Sorrow French, 1903 Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
In the third type, the Dead Christ tended by angels, we see something very different. These images have a deep relationship with the Man of Sorrows image, especially the form of the Man of Sorrows in which Jesus is supported by another person. But, in this variation, the humans have been replaced by angels.
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| Giovanni Bellini, The Dead Christ Supported by two Angels Italian, c. 1465-1470 London, National Gallery |
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| Carlo Crivelli, The Dead Christ Supported by Angels Italian, c. 1470 London, National Gallery |
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| Antonello da Messina, The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel Italian, c. 1474-1475 Madrid, Museo National del Prado |
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Giovanni Bellini, Dead Christ Supported by Angels Italian, ca. 1474 Rimini, Pinacoteca Comunale |
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| Girolamo da Treviso, Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels Italian, c. 1475-1485 Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera |
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| Giovanni Bellini, The Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels Italian, c. 1480-1485 Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Pedro Berruguete, The Dead Christ with Two Angels Spanish, 1480 Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera |
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| Dead Christ Mourned by Angels Italian, 16th Century Rome, Pinacoteca della Basilica di San Paolo fuori le mura |
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| Rosso Fiorentino, Dead Christ Supported by Angels Italian, 1524-1526 Boston, Museum of Fine Arts Rosso portrayed a typically Mannerist image of a contorted, unstable body barely supported by the angels. |
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| Baccio Bandinelli, The Dead Christ Supported by Nicodemus Italian, c. 1554-1559 Florence, Church of Santisssima Annunziata |
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| Leandro Bassano, Dead Christ Mourned by Angels Italian, c. 1580 Cleveland, Museum of Arts |
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| Tintoretto, The Dead Christ Adored by the Doges Pietro Lando and Marcantonio Trevisan Italian, c. 1580s Venice, Palazzo Ducale |
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| Veronese, Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels Italian, c. 1587-1589 Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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Alessandro Allori, Dead Christ with Two Angels Italian, ca. 1600 Budapest, National Museum This tiny painting, painted on copper, is a bridge between the "scientific" Dead Christ and the Dead Christ with Angels. Here the angels minister tenderly to the Body of Christ, preparing it for its new role. |
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| The Dead Christ Supported by Angels German, c. 1600-1625 London, Victoria and Albert Museum |
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| Jacopo Palma the Younger, The Dead Christ with Two Angels_ Italian, c. 1600 Budapest, Szépmûvészeti Múzeum |
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| Abraham Janssen van Nuyssen, The Dead Christ in the Tomb with Two Angels Flemish, c. 1610 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Guercino, Angels Weeping over the Dead Christ Italian, c, 1517-1618 London, National Gallery |
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| Alonso Cano, The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel Spanish, c. 1646-1652 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Francesco Trevisani, The Dead Christ Supported by Angels Italian, c. 1710 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Edouard Manet, Dead Christ With Angels French, 1864 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
As he so often did, the French painter Jacques-James Tissot stood out in his interpretation of this theme. His narrative paintings of the life of Jesus drew on the observations he made while residing in the Holy Land for more than a year. Consequently, his interpretation of the body of Christ in the tomb is one that accords with the traditional burial customs of the area. In his work the body of Jesus is not simply laid on a slab with a cloth under it. It is swaddled in cloth from head to foot, much like a mummy. This accords with both reality and the Biblical texts.
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| James Tissot, Jesus in the Sepulchre French, c. 1886-1894 New York, Brooklyn Museum |
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1. See also "O Key of David! Come, break down the walls of death" at http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/12/o-key-of-david.html
© M. Duffy, 2012, 2018
1. See also "O Key of David! Come, break down the walls of death" at http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/12/o-key-of-david.html
© M. Duffy, 2012, 2018
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States
of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986,
1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with
permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by
any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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