ANASTASI. - From the Greek Ἀνάστασις, that is, resurrection. In the peregrinatio Aetheriae (Itinera Hierosolymitana, in CSEL, 39, pp. 71, 73, 75, 99), written around the year 385, this designation is already used several times to indicate the place of the tomb of Our Lord and hence of the resurrection, contained within the basilica Gerusalemme (v.). Wilpert has improperly called the scene, repeatedly carved on Christian sarcophagi of
Roma, Milano, Palermo, and Gaul, an Anastasis: it depicts the cross surmounted by the monogram of Christ, enclosed within a triumphal laurel wreath and often supported by an eagle in flight, with two soldiers at the foot of the cross; sometimes there is a dove on each of the two lateral arms of the cross (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 226). But this designation as an Anastasis is inaccurate, since the scene has a much more complex meaning and requires a far broader interpretation: it is the triumph of the Cross, the victory of Christ over death, the crux invicta. Ancient Western Christian art, on the other hand, never represented the Anastasis realistically, as Eastern art did, which combined it with the descent into limbo. Examples occur in the mosaic of Dafne, in S. Lucia in Focide, in the chapel of S. Barnaba at Soghauli, and in another at Qaranlik-Kilissé (Cappadocia); in Italy, in S. Marco in Venezia and in the cathedral of Torcello.