Insights to Art
Mantegna's Dead Christ

Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ - Brera Art Gallery, Milan

Andrea Mantegna, The Dead Christ, Brera Art Gallery, Milan, painted 1470s?
Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ (1470s?; 68cm x 81cm)

Trying to Establish a Date
It is difficult to say exactly when Andrea Mantegna (b.1430, d. 1506) worked on his painting of the Dead Christ (Cristo Morto in Italian). No firm documentary evidence exists to help us establish its date, nor do we know details of who it was painted for or where it was to be found for decades, though we know it was in Mantegna's studio on his death. It has been suggested that Mantegna intended it for his own tomb in the church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua. It bears many stylistic affinities with the artist's Camera degli Sposi in the Ducal Palace at Mantua, which he worked on between 1468 and 1472. On the other hand, it also has similarities with his Saint Sebastian (now in the Louvre) which would mean that the Dead Christ could also have been painted around 1481. A sketch of a man reclining on a stone slab, in the British Museum in London and dating from around 1470, seems to have been a preparatory sketch for Mantegna's Dead Christ, suggesting that the painting may have been done in the 1470s. A copy of the painting of the Dead Christ (without the weeping figures) in the De Navarro Collection (Glen Head, New York) - even considered by some as the original version - complicates the story even further. Whatever, the canvas is in many ways a unique piece, and doubts surrounding its date do nothing to distract from its forceful impact.

Considering the Subject
A large part of the canvas is occupied by a violently cramped dead body of Christ. It immediately brings to mind the widely exploited theme of the Pietà (the dead Christ in the arms of Mary), though Mantegna's painting is a very novel and moving reworking of the idea. Of the three weeping figures on the left, the head of Mary wiping her eyes is particularly prominent and another pointer to the Pietà theme. The figure in the foreground is St. John the Baptist, while the dark, hardly-visible background figure is generally thought to be Mary Magdalene. The livid body of Christ covered with a draped cloth is shown in a daring perspective that gives an extraordinary intensity for the period. The tragic yet heroic dead figure seems almost trapped in the small mortuary chamber, lying on a large cold red marble slab that represents the Unction Stone (a relic that drew hordes of pilgrims to Constantinople up until the 5th century). We can clearly see the open wounds in Christ's hands and feet; his head rests on a pillow, and an unction jar can be made out on the right. The painting, though dark, has strong lighting from the right, and on close examination the small chamber reveals an aperture on the back wall leading into an even darker room, possibly Christ's burial place.

Painting Technique
As with other paintings of his, Mantegna was also innovative in his choice of techniques to paint the Dead Christ. Painting on canvas, which was not customary for the period, he used a glue-based fixative for his oil paints, rather than mixing them with egg. With such a medium, a layer of varnish is not required to protect the finished painting, and the painting technique allows for a flatness and crispness more similar to fresco. The final effect is matt, rather than glaringly glossy, giving an almost invasive intimacy and much more clarity to details. The sadly lined face of Mary is particularly impressive also for this reason. Despite moves towards softer colours in the paintings of other artists of the time, Mantegna has deliberately chosen to use a wan, gloomy colour scheme for his bitter, merciless interpretation of the scene.

Viewpoint
Probably the most striking aspect of this painting is the viewpoint the artist has chosen. Seen feet-on, the body is cramped into the space of the canvas in an unusual perspective. Technically such a viewpoint gives a "foreshortened" view of the figure, and in fact the painting also goes by the name of "Christ Foreshortened" (Cristo in scurto in Italian). While providing an original, dramatic and intense approach, the use of foreshortening for this painting should also be seen as a natural development of Mantegna's research into this technique. While earlier artists, such as Paolo Uccello, had also dabbled with the technique, it was Mantegna who developed the possibilities of foreshortening almost to the extreme. Many other works of Mantegna also make use of foreshortened figures, one particularly good example being the ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua. But Mantegna does not simply give a realistic interpretation of a dead body seen feet-on. His artistic skill hides evident realistic incongruities. In reality, a body seen from such a viewpoint would have much larger feet and a much smaller head, giving far too much canvas-space and importance to feet rather than face. Mantegna has altered reality to give a powerfully expressive painting that goes beyond a purely naturalistic representation. Likewise the angle of viewpoint for the faces of the weeping figures is different from that of the dead body so that we can perceive the full emotive force of Mary and St. John in tears.

Andrea Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi, detail of the ceiling, Ducal Palace, Mantua, painted 1471-74   
Andrea Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi (1471-74; detail)

A Special Concern
In his choice of subject matter, technique and viewpoint, Mantegna broke with many traditions of the time to give us a truly unique and innovative piece of work. But furthermore Mantegna probably also wanted to give his painting a special meaningfulness. The importance given to broad red marble unction stone can be thought of as the artist's way of providing an enduring celebration of the stone, so dear to Christian pilgrims, which had been plundered when the Muslims overran Constantinople in 1453 (it is believed that the stone was kept for centuries in the Sultan's palace, but it was never publicly seen again). The missing relic, originally taken to Ephesus from the Holy Land, was thought to be the very stone on which Christ's body received the last unction with aloe and myrrh on the night of Good Friday.

© Nigel J. Ross, 2003


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