Resurrection of Jesus Christ

RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST. — The historical fact of the Resurrection of Christ and the related dogmatic treatment are set forth under V. GESÙ CRISTO. The liturgical commemoration of the Resurrection is treated under

V. PASQUA. Here, only the iconographical aspect is considered.

The Resurrection of Christ was already depicted in early Christian art, as is demonstrated by several carved sarcophagi adorned with scenes from the Passion. The Resurrection, however, was then represented symbolically, by means of a Cross (Crux nuda) surmounted by the monogram “Pax,” beneath which two guards sleep; several birds, placed around the Cross, sing the glory of God, alluding to the paradisiacal aura of the sacred scene (v. ANASTASI). Excellent examples of such a primitive symbolic representation of the Resurrection are provided by two fourth-century marble sarcophagi in the Lateran Christian Museum in Rome (nos. 164 and 171). It should be noted that in early Christian sarcophagi such a symbolic representation of the Resurrection always occupied the central position among the other scenes of the Passion of Our Lord. The Middle Ages employed a very different figurative concept: namely, an open tomb, on one side of which two or three pious women are seen, and on the other one or two angels.

Until 1300, the figure of the risen Christ was not reproduced at all in representations of the Resurrection; all of them, therefore, depicted a moment after Our Lord’s emergence from the empty tomb. One of the earliest testimonies to this iconographical concept is offered by a ninth-century fresco in the lower church of S. Clemente in Rome; another is found in the frescoes of S. Angelo in Formis (eleventh century). In accordance with the same concept, the Resurrection was represented among the scenes in the cycle of the Passion that adorned the lateral panels of painted and shaped crosses: for example, the cross by Enrico di Tedice in S. Martino at Pisa. Duccio likewise employed this figurative concept in the Maestà of the Opera del duomo of Siena. The Resurrection of Christ was also represented by Lorenzo Maitani on the piers of the façade of the cathedral of Orvieto, with the pious women at the empty tomb guarded by an angel. Giotto too, in his Resurrection, frescoed shortly after 1305 on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, largely followed the traditional iconographical scheme of the Middle Ages, depicting the sacred scene with an empty tomb guarded by two angels and surrounded by sleeping guards. He nevertheless combined this representation of the Resurrection with that of the risen Christ, holding the Savior’s banner in his hands, appearing to Mary Magdalene.

A major general change in the iconography of the Resurrection took place around 1300, when the first attempts to introduce the figure of Christ into the representation of the scene can be observed. This change in the iconographical concept is well illustrated by a Roman miniature from the circle of Pietro Cavallini, datable to around 1303, which adorns the Exultet of cod. no. 78 B. in the Archive of S. Pietro in Rome. There the Resurrection is represented in two successive scenes grouped together: the first presents a new concept, namely Christ emerging from the wide-open sarcophagus, while the guards sleep

RISURREZIONE DI GESÙ CRISTO - Fresco by Beato Angelico. Firenze, Museum of S. Marco.

sleep; in the second, on the other hand, there is a repetition of the traditional iconographic conception, with the holy women at the empty tomb, guarded by an angel. The ancient iconographic scheme, without the representation of Christ, gradually disappeared during the course of the fourteenth century. Among its last instances is the panel dated to about 1375, attributed to Jacopo di Cione, in the National Gallery, London.

The new iconographic conception of the Resurrection was instead followed by Pietro Lorenzetti in the Risen Christ, frescoed about 1331 on the walls of the left transept of the lower church of the Basilica of S. Francesco at Assisi. In the Resurrection, datable to about 1370, frescoed on one of the triangular vaulting compartments of the Spanish Chapel at S. Maria Novella in Firenze, a late Giottesque master, perhaps Andrea da Firenze, depicted at the centre of the scene the risen Christ upon the clouds above the empty tomb, guarded by two angels, while before the sarcophagus lie six sleeping guards and, at the left, a group of three holy women; at the right, as Giotto had done at Padova, appears the scene of Christ’s appearance to the Magdalene. The presentation of Christ emerging from the tomb, or at least the representation of the Saviour above the tomb at the centre of the image, characterizes all fifteenth-century Resurrections and those of later times. Among them may be noted that of Lorenzo Ghiberti in a panel of the north door of the Florentine Baptistery (1423). Admirable is the Resurrection frescoed shortly after 1440 in one of the cells of the convent of S. Marco in Firenze by Beato Angelico, with four holy women at the right and an angel at the left, pointing to the risen Christ, depicted at the centre of the fresco; s. Domenico is kneeling in adoration in the left corner before the scene. The holy women do not appear in the Resurrection by Luca della Robbia, datable to about 1445, in a terracotta lunette in the sacristy of the Florentine Duomo, depicting the very moment in which Christ, bearing the banner of the Saviour, emerges from the Tomb, while the guards sleep upon the ground and the angelic hierarchies sing the hymn of glory in heaven.

The same conception (but without the depiction of the angels in heaven) was adopted by

(by courtesy of Miss Ida Bertagna)
RISURREZIONE DI GESÙ CRISTO - The risen Christ and the pious women at the tomb. Miniature from the Exultet II 78 of S. Pietro. Work of a Roman miniaturist, follower of Pietro Cavallini (1303–1305) - Rome, Archive of the basilica of S. Pietro, cod. 78 B.

(phot. Brogi)
RISURREZIONE DI GESÙ CRISTO - Risen Christ. Fresco by Andrea del Castagno (mid-fifteenth century) - Florence, convent of S. Apollonia.

Piero della Francesca in his fresco in the Palazzo comunale of Borgo S. Sepolcro, completed shortly before 1480. He was followed by Perugino in the panel executed in 1502 and now preserved in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, where the risen Christ is seen against the background of a luminous mandorla.

Sixteenth-century art also produced representations of the risen Christ surrounded by various saints. In this manner Fra' Bartolomeo della Porta painted the Resurrection of Christ in 1516, in a picture now in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, with the Saviour in the centre dominating his tomb and the four saints at the sides grouped in a sacred conversation. See also the illustrations in the article PASQUA. - Vedi tav. LII.