Anastasi

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 therefore of the resurrection, contained in the basilica erected there by Constantine in Jerusalem (v.). Wilpert has improperly defined as a. the scene carved several times on Christian sarcophagi of Rome, Milan, Palermo and the Gauls, representing the cross surmounted by the monogram of Christ, enclosed in a triumphal laurel wreath and often supported by an eagle in flight, with two soldiers at the foot of the cross; sometimes a dove is found on each of the two lateral arms of the cross (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 226). But this designation of a. is not exact, since the scene has a much more complex meaning and demands a much broader interpretation: it is the triumph of the Cross, it is the victory of Christ over death, it is the crux invicta. On the other hand, ancient Western Christian art has never expressed the a. realistically as Eastern art has depicted it, which has united it with the descent into limbo. Examples of it are found in the mosaic of Daphne, in St. Lucia in Phocis, in the chapel of St. Barnabas at Soghauli, and in another at Qaranlik-Kilissé (Cappadocia); in Italy in St. Mark's in Venice and in the cathedral of Torcello.

Enrico Josi