Christ as the Suffering Redeemer (Mantegna)

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Christ as the Suffering Redeemer (Mantegna), - 1495-1500. Tempera on wood. 78 x 48 cm .

The message of Easter - about suffering, resurrection, and redemption - constitutes the main theme of Icon. This painting is the museum's finest example of art from the early Italian Renaissance. Its realism and spatial depth and the vivid pain seen in the face of Christ broke new ground within the realm of painting. This was not just the time of the rebirth of Antiquity. It was also the time of the birth of art as we know it today. Death and resurrection

Morning dawns Wrapped in his cerements, Christ is seated on his sarcophagus. Behind him are two supporting angels, joining him in song. Stigmata on the hands and feet of Christ show that he has been crucified. Even so, he is not dead, but alive.

The mountain landscape behind Christ is divided into two worlds. On the one side, the sun is rising, serving as a symbol of the resurrection. On the other side is the Calvary where he was crucified. Life and death are equal parts of the world he inhabits.

The various elements in Christ as the Suffering Redeemer symbolise several things at one and the same time. The sarcophagus, which is his coffin, appears more like an altar or a throne. The gesture of this extended hand brings with it associations of the Holy Communion; here he offers up himself to us as a means of absolution and eternal life. Christ is both sacrifice, saviour, and king.

Resurrected, Christ is not just the symbol of God's existence; he also symbolises the rebirth of bygone days in Mantegna's picture. His vivid, animated face is attached to a perfect, idealised body. His torso has been depicted like a Classical marble sculpture, white and sublime in its chiselled, muscular form. Similarly, the stone quarry in the cave beneath the Calvary refers to the sculptures of Antiquity.

The holistic and the mundane In the landscape behind Christ, a number of scenes are played out, and different stories are being told. We see a city, Jerusalem, Calvary, and women on their way to the tomb of Christ. Despite the hints of stiffness in the characters and the backdrop-like quality to the background, Mantegna's work conveys the sense that we are seeing a piece of reality. The middle distance is absent, but the picture is not flat. Quite the contrary: it has a spatiality which draws our gazes in.

Mantegna's painting was created during the Renaissance. "Renaissance" means "rebirth", and what was reborn during the 15th and 16th centuries was Greco-Roman Antiquity. The artists and scholars of the Renaissance rediscovered a focus on specific, tangible reality. The focus was shifted away from God and the mystic to individual Man and his place within a greater whole. The world was studied directly; issues of morality, philosophy, and mathematics were discussed.

In the architecture and sculpture of heathen Antiquity, Renaissance artists found a mode of expression so perfectly harmonious and true that they believed it to be worthy of religious imagery. At that time, beauty was viewed as an image of God's existence.

In this work, Christ has been placed within a greater whole and has been depicted as realistically as possible. The space behind him has been constructed with the aid of mathematical laws. Up until this point, paintings did not have any depth. Religious figures were simply placed on gilt surfaces.

Pietas The suffering and pain is clearly evident in the face of Christ as he shows us his wounds. Depicting Christ as Man of Sorrows has been a tradition within art as far back as the year 1100. In the images of the Man of Sorrows from the Renaissance, the objective was to move spectators by confronting them directly with the suffering of Christ, thereby bringing about a more personal relationship to the Saviour and Christian beliefs.

Great variations exist within the tradition for images of the Man of Sorrows, also known as Pietàs. He could be depicted as dead or alive, in full-length or half-length portraits, with angels, alone, or surrounded by Biblical characters.

Mantegna's work is unusual because of its resurrection symbolism. The image of the Man of Sorrows is also full of life: we see Christ with open eyes, singing. His body is strong and flexed, as his foot steps on the rocky ground.

The chiselled look In Christ as the Suffering Redeemer, Christ is not depicted in a romantic or commiserating way, but as a stark, frozen figure. This chiselled quality is Mantegna's signature style. The artist has successfully imbued the work presented here with his trademark iciness and clarity, even though he was almost 70 years of age when it was executed.

Andrea Mantegna has been called a "sculptural painter". Beneath draperies, such as the soft folds of the cerement, a hard surface appears. The sharply modelled torso in the picture is more reminiscent of sculpture than of painting. Works created by Mantegna give the impression that the sculptural is his main sphere of interest.

His style is not the only element leaning towards the stony and petrified. Mantegna is also known for his rocky landscapes and brickwork-like spaces. Note the different types of stone and rock depicted. For example, the sarcophagus - hewn from porphyry, a volcanic stone - is rendered in an almost sensuous manner. In Mantegna's day, many believed that stones and rocks were something fertile and organic, and indeed his works feature rocks which are almost budding, ready to multiply.