RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST. - The historical fact of the R. of Christ and the related dogmatic treatment are set out at the entry GESÙ CRISTO. The liturgical commemoration of the R. is dealt with at the v. PASQUA. Here the treatment concerns only the iconographic part.
It was already customary to depict the R. of Christ in paleochristian art, as several carved sarcophagi adorned with scenes of the Passion show. At that time, however, the R. was depicted symbolically, by means of a Cross (Crux nuda) surmounted by the monogram "Pax" and beneath which two guards sleep; some birds, placed around the Cross, sing the glory of God, to allude to the paradisiacal aura of the sacred scene (v. ANASTASI). Excellent models of such an early symbolic depiction of the R. are offered by two marble sarcophagi of the 4th century in the Christian Museum of the Lateran in Rome (no. 164 and no. 171). It should be noted that in paleochristian sarcophagi such a symbolic depiction of the R. always occupied the central place among the other scenes of the Passion of Our Lord. The Middle Ages made use of a very different figurative concept: namely, by means of an open tomb, on one side of which two or three holy women are seen and on the other side one or two angels.
Until 1300 the figure of the risen Christ was not reproduced at all in depictions of the R., all of which therefore depicted a moment after Our Lord's coming forth from the empty tomb. One of the oldest testimonies of this iconographic concept is offered by a fresco of the 9th century, which is found in the lower church of St. Clement in Rome; another is in the frescoes of S. Angelo in Formis (11th century). According to the same concept, it was customary to depict the R. among the scenes of the cycle of the Passion that adorned the side panels of painted and shaped crosses: for example, that of Enrico di Tedice in S. Martino in Pisa. The same figurative concept was still used by Duccio in the Maestà of the Opera del duomo of Siena. With a representation of the holy women at the empty tomb, guarded by an angel, the R. of Christ was also depicted by Lorenzo Maitani on the piers of the facade of the duomo of Orvieto. Giotto too, in his R., frescoed shortly after 1305 on the walls of the Scrovegni chapel in Padua, largely approached the traditional medieval iconographic scheme, illustrating the sacred scene with an empty tomb, guarded by two angels and surrounded by sleeping guards. He, however, interwove with such a depiction of the R. that of the risen Christ with the banner of the Savior in his hands, appearing to the Magdalene.
An important general change in the iconography of the R. takes place around 1300, when the first fruits of the presentation of the figure of Christ in the depiction of the scene are noted. This change in the iconographic concept is well illustrated by a Roman miniature from the circle of Pietro Cavallini, datable to ca. 1303, which adorns the Exultet of cod. no. 78 B. of the Archive of St. Peter in Rome. There the R. was depicted in two successive scenes, grouped together: the first of them offers a new concept, namely it presents Christ coming out of the wide-open sarcophagus, while the guards sleep; in the second, instead, there is a repetition of the traditional iconographic concept, with the holy women near the empty tomb, guarded by an angel. The ancient iconographic scheme, without the representation of Christ, is gradually lost in the course of the 14th century. Among its last revivals is the panel datable to ca. 1375, attributed to Jacopo di Cione, in the National Gallery of London.
The new iconographic concept of the R. is instead followed by Pietro Lorenzetti in the Cristo risorto, frescoed around 1331 on the walls of the left transept of the lower Church at the basilica of S. Francesco in Assisi. In the R., datable to ca. 1370, frescoed on one of the triangular webs of the vault of the cappellone degli Spagnoli at S. Maria Novella in Florence, a late Giottoesque master, perhaps Andrea da Firenze, depicted at the center of the scene the risen Christ on the clouds above the empty tomb, guarded by two angels, while in front of the sarcophagus six sleeping guards lie and on the left there is a group of three holy women; on the right, instead, one sees, as Giotto did in Padua, the scene of Christ's appearance to the Magdalene. The presentation of Christ coming out of the tomb, or at least the depiction of the Savior above the tomb at the center of the image, characterizes all the R.s of the 15th century and those later. Among them are noted that of Lorenzo Ghiberti in a panel of the north door of the Florentine Baptistery (1423). Admirable is the R. frescoed shortly after 1440 in one of the cells of the convent of S. Marco in Florence by Beato Angelico, with four holy women on the right, an angel on the left, who points to the risen Christ, depicted at the center of the fresco; St. Dominic is kneeling in the left corner in adoration before the scene. The holy women do not appear in the R. of Luca della Robbia, datable to ca. 1445, in a terracotta lunette in the sacristy of the Florentine Duomo, depicting precisely the moment when Christ, carrying the banner of the Savior, comes out of the Tomb, while the guards sleep on the ground and the angelic hierarchies sing the hymn of glory in the heavens.
The same concept (but without the depiction of the angels in heaven) was adopted by Piero della Francesca in his fresco in the Palazzo Comunale of Borgo Sansepolcro, completed shortly before 1480. He is followed by Perugino in the panel executed in 1502 and now preserved in the Vatican Pinacoteca, where the risen Christ is seen against the background of a luminous mandorla.
The art of the sixteenth century 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 Savior at the center dominating his tomb and at the sides the four saints grouped in a conversation. See also the illustrations of the entry PASQUA. - See pl. LII.
Bibliography
Witold Wehr