Corpus Christi: The Handling of the Body of Christ in Italian Renaissance Art. Megan Milewski

Transcription

1 Corpus Christi: The Handling of the Body of Christ in Italian Renaissance Art Megan Milewski Faculty Sponsor: Nicole Bensoussan Department of Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts; University of Michigan-Dearborn The Italian Renaissance was a time of many great developments, especially in the visual arts. The works produced at this time were of distinct subject matter. Sometimes the works were privately patronized. Other times, the works were of a civic nature and meant for all to see. If an artist was lucky, he could become a court artist and work at his own pace. A good portion of the art produced at this time, was Christian or Christian influenced and dealt with scenes and stories from the Bible. The most popular of all was that of the life of Jesus Christ. In this essay, though, it is not the life of Christ that will be discussed. What will be discussed is the handling of the body of Christ after his death. This handling is not only the physical grasping of Christ by the figures within the composition of a work, but also the way in which the artist depicted the body and his particular approach to a scene. The focus of this essay is The Entombment of Christ by Venetian artist Carlo Crivelli. It is a transitional work between the Early Renaissance and the High Renaissance. Throughout this essay, Crivelli's work will be formally analyzed and compared to paintings with similar subject matter. Crivelli's Entombment was completed in 1470, in paint on panel, and is currently housed in the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan. The panel and frame are semi-circular, indicating that the odd shape was commissioned for a specific place of display or a specific aesthetic desire of the possible patron, and was likely part of a larger altarpiece ensemble. The paint medium was not specified, but I have deduced that it was painted in tempera because of the lack of jewel tones and captured light that is generally seen in oil works 1. The subject matter of this image is the entombment of Jesus Christ, after his death by crucifixion. Although the museum label titles it a Deposition, calling it a Deposition is very misleading. The Deposition of Christ is the act of removing him from the cross. Due to the tomb pictured in the foreground and the absence of the cross, the event Crivelli shows is, in fact, an Entombment. This is usually followed by the Lamentation of the group around him, and also the private grieving of his mother, Mary, which is the Pietà. The Entombment is the act of depositing Christ in the tomb. In Italian Renaissance art, the lines are blurred sometimes, but what happens in these scenes is generally static. But, our discussion will begin with the first after-death event; the Deposition. The action of removing the body of Christ from the cross and carrying it away is generally what characterizes a Deposition scene. Also, a common convention of the Deposition is the inclusion of the cross that Christ was crucified on. In the case of the Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino, we see just that. Rosso gives the viewer a very straightforward scene. Figures crowd the bottom of the cross as the dead Christ is being removed. These figures are Mary the Mother, Mary 1 See History of Oil Painting from oilpaintings.org (see Works Cited for URL)

2 Magdalene, and various disciples. Three ladders lead up to Christ's cross, and several men move to remove him. Jesus's body is freshly and very dead in this work. There is motion in his pose, but simply because his weighty body struggles to stay in one place, since it is now absent control and life. The bright colors and cropped composition of this work lead the eye in to the motionfilled, dramatic scene. It is filled with emotion and movement. The viewer is assaulted with imagery, and said imagery elicits an emotional and contemplative response. The main figures in Crivelli's so called Deposition are, from left to right, two unidentified men (who are likely Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodermus), Mary the Virgin Mother, Jesus Christ, John the Evangelist, a follower and one of the twelve apostles, and Mary Magdalene, another follower of Christ's. They are arranged in a fairly linear manner across the panel. The men to the far left and bottom of the composition are praying and observing the narrative before them. Mary, the Virgin Mother (left-center), is supporting Christ and openly weeping, her face lined with grief and her mouth open with her cries. Her hand, in supporting him, cups and accentuates the wound at his side that was made by the Roman soldier Longinus while he was on the cross. The dead Christ (center) is limply leaning against his mother, his forehead touching hers, and a serene expression is on his face. The upright position in which they hold him reflects a convention called the man of sorrows which will be discussed later. The depiction of Christ in this work is that of a fair, European man. This was a common way to portray Christ, though later artists, such as Rembrandt van Rijn, challenged that depiction 2. John the Evangelist (right-center) stands behind Christ and his mother and weeps while looking to the heavens with puffy, red eyes. After the Deposition, the next after-death scene that depicts the handling of Christ is the Pieta. The Pieta is an image of Mary holding the body of her dead son, Jesus. Sometimes, she is accompanied by John the Evangelist or Mary Magdalene. In the case of Giovanni Bellini's Pietà, the mother Mary is accompanied by John the Evangelist. Even though he is in the composition with her, they are not connected. John simply serves Jesus and takes on the duty of holding up the deceased Christ. He stares out of the composition, presumably caught up in his own mourning. Mary and Jesus, on the other hand, are connected figures. Mary presses her face against her son's, and his body leans slightly into her. She gingerly holds his hand to his chest and stares into his face, her face lined with sorrow. It is a quiet mourning. No great gestures or swooning mother, but rather a simple, concentrated scene of a mother saying goodbye to her son. The way in which she holds his hand to his chest is similar to the way Crivelli depicted it in the Detroit Entombment. In this case of this Pieta, the body of Christ is handled solemnly and gingerly. He is held as a weighty body, but regarded as if still alive. The tilt of his head, the upright posture of his body, and the movement of his arms have a double purpose. First, these representational conventions are meant to convey him as a weighty corpse. Second, these conventions are meant to lend life to his dead body, conveying Mary's motherly grief and our appropriate response to the work. No drama or contortion is lent to it. It is a simple, subdued scene of grief, and is completely straight to the point. The convention of holding his body upright is a convention called the man of sorrows, which, as mentioned earlier, with be touched on later. With Michelangelo's sculpted Pietà, on the other hand, the figure grouping, their interaction, and the way Christ is handled is different. Instead of being held by John the Evangelist and Mary, the body is held by Nicodemus (aid to Joseph of Arimathea, who was the 2 See Image Appendix for Rembrandt van Rijin's Head of Christ

3 man to who gave his tomb up for Christ), Mary the Virgin Mother, and Mary Magdalene. The figures work together as a group, supporting the body. Nicodemus looms above it all, moving to help the Virgin Mother. Mary Magdalene flanks him, and supports Christ in the front. Mary the Mother is not as prominent in this scene, though, as she was in Bellini's. She holds him from behind and is almost obscured by Christ's large body. She nuzzles her head into his, which droops towards her. Instead of Bellini's, upright and life-like Christ, this is clearly a corpse. His body droops and sags around the figures as they hold him up. It is not a quiet scene like Bellini's. It is full of dynamism and motion. It greatly displays Michelangelo's mastery of the body and his ability to convey motion so easily. The mourning of the Virgin is the same, though. She quietly holds her son, as the other two figures look on and help her. He is held gingerly and regarded reverently, as if he has just been lowered from the cross and into their arms. His depiction is not a double-meaning as the last Pieta. He is shown as a very dead corpse with figures moving dynamically around him. In Crivelli's work, one could argue it is not only an Entombment, but a hint of a Pieta as well within the composition. Mary Magdalene is farthest to the right in Crivelli's work, holding Christ s hand in hers and kissing his wounds. The figures are all in the clothing of the time of Christ. Many artists of the time clothed the figures in garments contemporary with the time of the narrative depicted in the work. 3 What struck me as odd, though, was the tomb itself. As mentioned previously, even though figures are clothed in a manner like those of biblical times, the tomb does not match. To me, it seems to resemble a tomb contemporary with the time of the work (1470), and could possibly even be a tomb of the region. The figures are arranged in the space to fill it, but do not overcrowd it. They realistically occupy space and are all to scale. John the Evangelist stands behind Christ, lending to the illusion of space and depth in the small space of the narrative. No single figure (or figure group) is larger than another, as is sometimes seen in earlier works 4. The two unidentified figures at the bottom left open the composition and lead the eye to the narrative at the center, and to Christ, the center of it all. The man farthest to the left stares at the scene before him and reinforces the direction of our eye to the narrative. The man to his right is praying, and has his back to us, opening the space, and providing us with a window in which to look. This window was an innovation in Renaissance artistic viewing and composition. It invited the viewer to look, and the artist arranged the work within this window for optimum aesthetic pleasure and emotional response 5. An example of another artist using such a technique is seen in a work entitled The Lamentation by the father of the Italian Renaissance, Giotto di Bondone 6. This brings me to the next after-death event; The Lamentation of Christ. The Lamentation is the scene of mourning of Mary the Virgin Mother and the various disciples of Christ. Traditionally, these scenes are crowded with figures and strong in emotional response. In the case of Giotto di Bondone's work, the Lamentation is filled with dramatic grief. The figures cluster about the body of Christ, and all mourn very differently. In the case of Mary the Mother, she is in quiet disbelief. She gently cradles the head and neck of her son and stares down into his face. At his feet presides Mary Magdalene, who gently cradles Christ's feet. In some depictions of Lamentations, Mary kisses the feet of Christ. The others around the Marys and the dead Christ are in dramatic mourning. 3 See Image Appendix for examples of the Deposition by Bronzino and Raphael 4 See Image Appendix for an example from Masaccio entitled the Pisa Altarpiece 5 See Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Vol 2, pg See Image Appendix for Giotto's Lamentation and an example of the window framed by figures

4 John the Evangelist thrusts his arms back in a cry, which is mimicked by the angels flying above. Giotto conveys great drama and grief in this scene. Amid it all, the body of Christ is handled gently and reverently. The figures holding him do not even let his body touch the ground. Andrea Mantegna's Lamentation is different. Instead of a crowded scene full of drama, it is a secluded, intimate scene. The body of Christ takes up a majority of the frame. It is laid out and foreshortened to the viewer. Mantegna does not portray him as other depictions. He is not physically being held by anyone. To the left, Mary the Virgin Mother and John the Evangelist weep over the body. The drama and realism of the foreshortened body are extremely poignant. So, in a sense, this piece has its own share of drama just of a different nature. It stresses horizontality and corpse aspect of his body. It is essentially the opposite of the man of sorrows. The drama in this Lamentation comes from the body of Christ, rather than those around it. To return to the analysis of Crivelli's Entombment, all of the figures are painted in such a fashion to look weighty, and again, take up space. Christ s body leans onto his grieving mother s, looking especially limp and lifeless. The figures are all painted in full, realistic color; Christ stands out the most, painted in a sickly pale grey-green color that looks especially like the pallor of a corpse. The rest of the figures are painted in bright colors for their clothing, and flesh tones for their faces and hands. The entirety of the scene, though, is set against a gold ground. This gold background harkens back to the gold background of Byzantine icons and early Renaissance altarpieces 7. This gold ground was used to convey a sense of timelessness and divinity, and separated the subject matter from the material world. This gold ground was likely also due to the trade influence in Venice. Venice was trade port, and dealt with many distant lands. In particular, the Byzantine traditions of Eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Due to this, gold grounds, iconic rendering, and several other conventions remained in Venetian art later than other regions of Italy due to this communication via trade. Despite the separation from the material world through the use of this gold ground, the image is not flat, as its predecessors have been. There is a light source (though not from a defined direction), weighty figures, and a sense of space. The emotional response of the work is one of great sorrow. As previously mentioned, Mary the Virgin Mother is crying with her mouth open and face lined. The artist has even gone to the trouble to paint tears falling down the Virgin's face. John the Evangelist, on the other hand, is a little quieter in his sorrow. His face is lined with grief, but his mouth is set in a line as his faintly puffy eyes are cast to the heavens, questioning the Almighty God in this terrible event. The most calm figure in the entirety of the piece is the Mary Magdalene, who gently kisses the hand of Christ in bittersweet reverence. Overall, these varied reactions are meant to conjure feelings of sorrow and contemplation as one views this piece. The final event of the after-death of Christ is the Entombment, which Crivelli selected as the narrative moment for the Detroit painting. The Entombment by Fra Angelico connects with conventions shown in Crivelli's Deposition. First, both works use the convention of man of sorrows, which was mentioned earlier in the discussion of Bellini's Pieta. The man of sorrows is a convention that dates back to the medieval era and is a Northern tradition (see image appendix for a Northern Renaissance example by Rogier van der Weyden, Entombment, 1450, oil on panel). It is an image of Christ, nude from the waist up, displaying his wounds of the Passion and Crucifixion. This imagery of Christ being handled in such a way after death is to 7 See Image Appendix for Cimabue's Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints

5 hint at his resurrection. The way in which he is held up by the other figures in the works allows his body to mimic the pose his took in his sacrifice on the cross to save humanity from their sins. It reminds us of his pose, but also his resurrection yet to come. In some works (such as Crivelli's, and Fra Angelico's, which is shown here), the tomb of Christ even aids in the man of sorrows imagery. The tombs in the aforementioned images are flat and are meant to appear as an altar. This altar allusion is meant to enforce the resurrection and sacrifice of Christ by calling to mind the Eucharistic rituals of the church. That being said, lets move on to the handling of Christ. Fra Angelico's work is a perfect example of a man of sorrows Entombment. Christ is supported by Nicodemus from the back (recall the Florentine Pieta by Michelangelo), while Mary the Virgin Mother and John the Evangelist kiss Christ's wounded hands, which are stretched out to them. The pose of the body perfectly mirrors his pose from the cross. The scene is reigned in from the back by the rock-cut cave and the flat tomb. The flat tomb is observed in Crivelli's work, but there is an absence of the rock-cut cave. The inclusion of the simple background thrusts Angelico's work forward and leads our eye directly to the focal point, Christ. This is yet another work of quiet solemnity. Christ is being handled reverently, and the purpose of his sacrifice and the events to come are capitalized. It is an almost other-worldly scene. The Entombment by Raphael is a little different. Instead of actually depicting the action of the entombment of Christ (or moments before, as seen in the aforementioned work), it depicts the scene of carrying the body to the tomb. As with the comparison between the Pietà, these Entombment scenes differ greatly as well. The work by Angelico follows the convention of the man of sorrows and shows Christ upright and life-like, as seen in Bellini's Pieta. This scene by Raphael shows Christ carried by men in a shroud, clearly very weighty from the volume of figures in the composition. This is similar to Michelangelo's Pieta, where the figure grouping is larger and more involved with the body. This is a scene of drama. The figures struggle with the weight of the corpse, Mary Magdalene rushes over to the body as they carry it, and gingerly touches Christ's face. Behind the moving group is a devastated Virgin Mother, who is collapsed into another woman, as several more around her struggle to console her. The figures are pushed far into the foreground, leaving for little to no distraction from the background. A final Entombment is that of Jacopo Pontormo. The Entombment by Jacopo da Pontormo also conjures an emotional response. It has odd, bright colors and grieving figures. It too emphasizes the weighty nature of Christ's body after death, but is absent the cross that usually characterizes works such as these. These scenes are of great contrast, but equally convey the sorrow and heartbreak of the death of Jesus Christ, and the mourning of those who loved him. In conclusion, The Entombment of Christ by Venetian artist Carlo Crivelli blurs the lines of Christian imagery and iconography. He includes elements of both a Pieta and an Entombment. His imagery is simple, but does what all great pieces of art should do: make you think and make you feel. Though not falling into one category of an after-death scene of Christ, Crivelli's work provides the proper reverence and solemnity required of such an important religious event. As discussed, the body of Christ was handled with great care in Italian Renaissance art. Artists showed his dead body being treated gingerly by biblical figures, and depicted him according to well-established conventions. Sometimes, he was emphasized as a corpse, other times he was a signal of events to come. Representations of Jesus were all ritualistic and sacred. His importance in Christianity was properly conveyed with reverence and solemnity throughout Italian Renaissance art.

6 Image Appendix Carlo Crivelli, The Deposition of Christ, 1470, paint (tempera) on panel Rosso Fiorentino, Descent from the Cross, 1522, oil on panel

7 Rembrandt van Rijn, Head of Christ, , Oil on oak Giovanni Bellini, Pieta with the Virgin and Saint John, late 1460s, tempera on panel

8 Michelangelo, Florentine Pieta, 1550, marble Masaccio, Pisa Altarpiece, 1426, tempera on panel

9 Giotto di Bondone, Lamentation, 1305, fresco, Arena Chapel, Padua Andrea Mategna, Lamentation over the dead Christ, 1480, tempera on panel

10 Cimabue, Santa Trinita Maesta, , tempera on panel Fra Angelico, Entombment, 1440, tempera on panel

11 Rogier van der Weyden, Entombment, 1450, oil on panel Raphael, Entombment, 1507, oil on panel

12 Jacopo Pontormo, Entombment, , oil on wood

13 Works Cited Bellini, Giovanni. Pietà with the Virgin and Saint John. late 1460s. Bondone, Giotto. The Lamentation Arena Chapel, Padua. Bronzino, Agnolo. Deposition of Christ Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon. Cimabue. Enthroned Madonna and Child with Saints Ufizzi Gallery, Florence. Fiorentino, Rosso. Descent from the Cross Pinacoteca Comunale di Volterra, Italy. "History of Oil Painting." - Oil Painting Information. InfOrganization. Web. 04 Mar < Kleiner, Fred S., and Helen Gardner. Gardner's Art through the Ages. the Western Perspective. Vol. 2. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Print. Mantegna, Andrea. Lamentation over the dead Christ Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Masaccio. Pisa Altarpiece National Gallery, London. Michelangelo. Florentine Pieta Museo dell'opera del Duomo, Florence. Pontormo, Jacopo. Entombment Church of Santa Felicità, Florence. Sanzio da Urbino, Raffaello. Deposition Borghese Collection, Rome. van der Weyden, Rogier. Entombment Museo del Prado, Madrid. Van Rijin, Rembrandt. Head of Christ. 1650s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. \