Lamentation of Christ
The lamentation of Christ after his body was removed from the cross and before his entombment is a motif that was depicted many times in painting from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque and is therefore classified as an independent type of image in art history.
Lore
The biblical story of the Passion does not mention the lamentation of Christ; the burial takes place immediately after the descent from the cross . One can see an allusion in the mention:
- "All his acquaintances, however, stood at some distance (from the cross), including the women who had followed him since the time in Galilee and who saw everything." ( Lk 23.49 EU )
There are also references to this episode in several apocryphal writings; It was popularized in the Middle Ages by mystics such as Pseudo-Bonaventure . The lamentation took place either on Golgotha - i.e. at the foot of the cross - or a little later at the tomb of Christ .
iconography
Seven people are usually involved in the lamentation and the burial of Christ - with modifications:
- Virgin Mary
- John
- Joseph of Arimathia
- Nicodemus
- Mary Magdalene
- the sisters Mary of Cleophas and Salome
In contrast to the Pietà , where the Mother of God usually mourns the body of Jesus resting on her knees as a single person, here the body - surrounded by several people - mostly rests on the ground. Sometimes Jesus' body is held by Joseph by Arimathia (the shoulders) and Nicodemus (the legs); Maria is close to fainting.
photos
.jpg)
literature
- Karl W. Jähnig: The representations of the Descent from the Cross, the Lamentation and the Entombment of Christ in the old Dutch painting from Rogier van der Weyden to Quentin Metsys . Hohenstein-Ernstthal 1914, DNB 570733006 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joel M. Upton: Petrus Christ . His Place in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Painting. University Park, London 1990, ISBN 0-271-00672-2 , pp. 65-76 .
- ↑ The Lamentation of Christ and the Pietà (English), accessed on October 31, 2017
