Entombment of Christ (image type)

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Grünewald - Entombment, detail from the predella of the Isenheim Altarpiece (around 1510)

The Entombment of Christ is a type of image in Western Christian iconography . The scene of the Passion story is to be classified chronologically and iconographically between the types of images of the Descent from the Cross and the Lamentation of Christ or Pietà on the one hand and the Resurrection or Ascension of Christ on the other. The Orthodox tradition developed the independent type of the entombment icon .

Lore

Codex Egberti - Descent from the Cross and Entombment (around 980)

Three of the four evangelists ( Mt 27.57-61  EU ; Mk 15.42-47  EU ; Lk 52-56  EU ) report - essentially unanimously - that Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate after Jesus' death on the cross and about the surrender of the corpse asked. He took it off the cross, wrapped it in a linen cloth and buried it in an unused rock grave . Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary watched where the body was being laid; then they prepared anointing oils . The Gospel of John ( John 19 : 38-42  EU ) also mentions a man named Nicodemus who brought a mixture of aloes and myrrh and helped Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus.

History of the image type

The Bible tradition therefore mentions a maximum of 2 male people who were present at the burial of Jesus, while the women only observed the event from a distance. While the early depictions of the Entombment - with the exception of the rock tomb, which is usually replaced by a stone sarcophagus - adhere strictly to the Bible text and show only a few people, the number of accompanying figures - as with the Descent from the Cross - increases in popularity with the The topic is getting bigger (from the 15th century it is usually 6 to 8). Since then, the subject of the Lamentation of Christ has often been integrated into depictions of the Entombment.

Devotional image

Entombment group with 7 people from the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Andernach (1525)

The fact of the increasing number of accompanying figures is very likely due to the fact that a large part of the people strove for a more direct participation in the salvation and passion events. This presumably led to a large number of private or public devotional images being created from the middle of the 14th century and especially in the 15th century . The Council of Trent (1545–1563) recognized the long-standing religious educational significance of religious representations.

A special feature of the sculptural burial groups with their (almost) life-size figures is that in most cases they were set up on the ground floor and mostly in a side chapel of a church and thus differed from the distant pictures - usually raised behind the altar or hanging on a wall delimit. People could (and should) get close to the groups of figures and feel part of the action. Suffering, death and grief in the fate of the divine Redeemer and the people around him are thereby brought to mind and brought down to the level of individual experience.

Historical background

Entombment group with 8 - almost life-size - accompanying figures from the parish church of Lampaul-Guimiliau in Brittany (1676)

The emergence and spread of the multi-figure type of burial coincides almost exactly with the great plague epidemics in Europe. Illness and death, pain and grief became almost everyday life experiences. Questions about the meaning of suffering and dying were asked more often and by referring to Christ's suffering and death it seemed easier to come to terms with the incomprehensible and painful experiences during the never-ending years of plague and subsequent famine. This is a possible explanation for the fact that depictions of the Entombment - but also other scenes from the Passion of Christ - were so popular in large parts of Europe. The central motif of the Christian doctrine of salvation - the resurrection - takes a back seat in quantitative terms compared to the depictions of the Passion of the time.

The burial is usually also the 14th and last station of the carved or painted representations of the Cross , which appear around the same time , in which people can physically and psychologically relate to Christ's ordeal.

Famous paintings

Almost all famous painters from the late Gothic to the baroque have dealt - sometimes several times - with the subject of "Entombment" in their work:

gallery

See also

Another way of coping with suffering and death in the years of the plague and other epidemics was the dance of death , in which the grim reaper often plays an important role.

literature

  • William H. Forsyth: The Entombment of Christ, French Sculpture of the 15th and 16th Centuries. Cambridge / Mass. 1970, ISBN 0-674-25775-8 .
  • Engelbert Kirschbaum et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of Christian Iconography. Vol. 2, Herder-Verlag, Freiburg / Br. 1974, ISBN 3-451-21806-2 , pp. 193ff.
  • Agathe Schmiddunser: Body of Passions. The life-size reclining figure of the dead Christ from the Middle Ages to the Spanish Yacente of the early Baroque. Schnell & Steiner Verlag, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2033-8 , p. 36ff.

Web links

Commons : Entombment of Christ  - Collection of images, videos and audio files