PICTURES OF THE BIBLE © Serge Ceruti and Gérard Dufour 2008
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The Resurrection of Christ and the Women at the Tomb; Fra ANGELICO; 1440-41 fresco; convento di San Marco, Florence
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The Resurrection of Christ |
TO UNDERSTAND THE SCENE |
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WHAT YOU CAN SEE IN THIS PICTURE
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... AND IN OTHER PICTURES
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The evolution of the representation |
With the gradual representation of the person of Christ, Christian art has turned from the symbolic to realism, from the implicit to the explicit.
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Chrism of the church of Coli, valley of Boi, Catalona
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The symbolic resurrection confines itself to the bare cross or to the monogram XR, the first two letters of the Name CHRist in Greek; only the guards mentioned by Matthew are present. |
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The Resurrection; Piero della FRANCESCA; 1463-65; fresco; Pinacoteca Comunale, Sansepolcro, Italy.
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After the 11th century, the symbol changed into factual reality in spite of the difficulty to represent the risen Christ coming out of his tomb. A regular evolution can be noticed but Christ is always standing; which corresponds very well to the idea of resurrection. He is at first erect in his tomb, then he puts his foot on the edge; he soon steps over it and stands before the sarcophagus; then on the lid. Such an event requires some spectators, the original guards and the watchers multiply with reactions of fright or they are completely thrown over by the blast. |
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The Resurrection of Christ; Jacopo TINTORETTO; 1565; oil on canvas; San Cassiano, Venice.
The Resurrection of Christ; REMBRANDT; 1635-39; oil on canvas; Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Munich
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In Fra Angelico, the risen Christ is already floating in the air above the tomb, but it is only an invocation by the angel, who is invisible to the women.
On the contrary, Tintoretto makes him shoot out like a rocket visible to all.
Rembrandt, more influenced by the modesty of the Protestant Reformation, replaces Christ by an explosion of light guided by the angel of God.
Thus one can find all the elements of the theophany or classical divine manifestation. |
THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVE
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The Resurrection of Christ and the Women at the Tomb; Fra ANGELICO; 1440-41 fresco; convento di San Marco, Florence
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The Resurrection of Christ |
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The Gospel according to Mark chapter 16
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of
James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint
him. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they
came to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves,
Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre for us? |
And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither did they say any thing to any man; for they were afraid. (Mark 16:1-8)
Comment
The narrative of the discovery of the empty tomb by the women on Easter morning asserts that Jesus lives beyond death. The disappearance of his corpse cannot be explained by a theft but by a bodily transformation. Christ will appear in Galilee, the place of the mission among the pagans.
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SIMILAR PICTURES
| The Resurrection of Christ |
The Resurrection of Christ and the Women at the Tomb; Fra ANGELICO; 1440-41 fresco; convento di San Marco, Florence
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To the three women before the empty tomb, Jordaens adds Peter and the Apostle John who comforts Mary Magdalene. |
John, Peter and Mary Magdalene at the open tomb of Christ; 1372; miniature from the “Historial Bible” by Petrus Comestor; manuscript MMW 10 B 23; Museum Meermanno
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The Holy Women at the Sepulchre; Jacob JORDAENS; oil on canvas; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. Olga's Gallery - Online Art Museum
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Two views of the tomb open to nature or sunken in the rock. Mary Magdalene always discovers the shroud and the empty tomb, but in Gill, she has no need for the angel. |
The Resurrection; Eric GILL; 1917; printed relief.
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The Marys at the Tomb; an imitator of MANTEGNA; oil on wood; National Gallery, London.
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The joy of he angels announcing the news of Christ’s resurrection to the three Mary’s; Mary Magdalene’s fright in front of Christ. |
The Three Marys at the tomb; LE BACICCIO; c. 1685; oil on canvas; National Gallery, London.
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The Morning of the Resurrection; Edward BURNE-JONES; 1886; oil on wood; Tate Collection, London.
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The representation is previous to the women’s visit to the empty tomb. The soldiers are asleep and the victorious Christ carrying the banner rises from the stone tomb without any witness. |
The Resurrection; Hans MEMLING; c. 1490; oil on wood; Louvre Museum, Paris.
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The Resurrection; c. 1450; painted drawing from “Speculum Humanae Salvationis” of Cologne; manuscript MMW 10 B 34; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague.
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The tomb has disappeared. For El Greco, the resurrection is a sort of explosion overthrowing the soldiers and making the victorious Christ appear suddenly. In Titian, Christ literally takes his flight above a stupefied soldier. |
The Resurrection; El GRECO; 1596-1610; oil on canvas; altarpiece of Dona Maria College, Toledo, Spain.
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The Resurrection; TITIAN; 1520; oil on canvas; Santi Nazaro e Celso, Brescia, Italy
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A resurrection in the tomb grotto. In Benvenuto di Giovanni, it is a mere vertical sarcophagus whose door falls down. In Altdorfer, the blast is material at the bottom and spiritual at the top. |
The Resurrection of Christ; Albrecht ALTDORFER; 1527; tempera on wood; Kunstmuseum, Basle, Swizerland. Olga's Gallery - Online Art Museum
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The Resurrection; Benvenuto di GIOVANNI; c. 1490; tempera on panel; National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
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The Resurrection of Christ and the Women at the Tomb; Fra ANGELICO; 1440-41 fresco; convento di San Marco, Florence
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The Resurrection of Christ |
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Easter The Christian celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ is rooted in the Jewish feast of Pessah or Passover which commemorates the liberation from the bondage in Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Sea of Reeds. This is the reason why the Christian Easter is celebrated according to the Jewish lunar calendar at the full moon following the spring equinox. Each week, the Sunday recalls Easter. The Jewish week ends with the Sabbath, the seventh day. The first day of the week, the day of the sun, Sunday or German Sonntag will become for Christians the day of the Lord, dies dominica en Latin, from it French dimanche and Italian domenica.
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Celebrating Easter Easter eggs offered to children, decorated and concealed. This custom has probably various origins; one can see in it a symbol of the new life, at the same time linked to spring and to the Resurrection. In the same way as a small flower (the daisy) blossoming at that moment bears the pretty name of “pâquerette”. Today theses eggs are mainly in chocolate but, in addition, bells, hens and rabbits can be found. The presence of these eggs in the garden or in the nooks and corners of the house has to be explained so that, in some regions, they are said to be brought by the bells coming back from Rome (they have not rung since Maundy Thursday) or by the Easter hen and, in Germanic regions, by the Easter Bunny. The fish that is also sold has nothing to do with the Christian symbol but recalls that of April 1st, that is sometimes near.
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Easter Monday Formerly, the week after Easter was a week of rest and feasting. Easter Monday is a bank holiday in France as a remnant and some countries keep the tradition of holidays at that time of the year. This period of spring is also favourable to renovation and the spring cleaning took place during those days; the cleaning has been maintained but has tended to be brought forward before Easter so that everything should be beautiful for the feast. |
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BIBLE PICTURES © Serge Ceruti and Gérard Dufour 2008
