The Physicality of Death, Essay Example

Every piece of art is more than it seems at a first glance. In order to understand the meaning and an intended message from its creator to the target audience, a piece of art should be studied in terms of its historical and cultural frameworks. In this regard, cultural and impressionist narratives of an artwork assist in its full understanding and profound multifaceted interpretation. The aim of this paper is to analyse and interpret Andrea Mantegna’s work “The Dead Christ” (c.1501) from various perspectives.

This work of art describes the common Renaissance theme of Lamentation of Christ. Unlike traditional depictions of the dead Christ of that time, Mantegna showed the human perspective of dying in all its coldness and stillness. In this regard, the body of Christ is centred on the picture, lying on the marble table with a pillow under his head and two mourners on the left-hand side. The entire space of composition is very limited and closed, creating an impression of suffocation and stillness of a tomb. The main colours vary from pale cream to faded pink with the use of dark brown and black for the background contrast and clothes of the mourners.

The primary purpose of the work is to demonstrate the humanness and physicality of Christ’s death. This is achieved through the attention to the details of pain particular to the human experience. In this regard, Mantegna paid particular attention to position Christ’s hands to show his wounds. Wounds both on hands and feet are painted in detail demonstrating even “the dry skin illustrating the depth of one’s pain and suffering having nails in these wounds” (Gaudio 63). One of the expressive qualities of the work is the creation of the feeling of human suffering mediated through Christ’s body and grief on mourner’s faces. In this regard, the physical heaviness of death is almost palpable in the painting and the impression it creates.

In terms of cultural narratives and cultural context, the work shows the narrative of Italian Renaissance through the presence of such cultural elements as pillows, styles of mourner’s garments, marble table where the body was placed (Honour and Fleming 86). In terms of stylistics narrative, Mantegna created a narrative of a human life and death in Christ’s suffering which opposed traditional transcendent depiction of Christ beyond his suffering and at peace after death. Thus, Mantegna was breaking the traditional narrative of Christ’s holiness and aimed to demonstrate the humanness and its reflection in Christ’s human and vulnerable body. Thus, the cultural context of this artwork is that the author created a human-centred narrative of the depicted scene, which corresponded to the core of Renaissance and the beginning of Modernism (Gaudio 123).

In terms of the formal characteristics, this piece of art was conducted with the use of tempera on canvas. The primary technique used to create “the impression of volume and three-dimensional perception was trompe l’oeil, which is a special illusion” (Honour and Fleming 82). In this regard, Mantegna used a foreshortening technique or linear perspective in order to strengthen the sense of projection   and the depth of the target central part of the artwork, creating the impression of volume and three-dimensional perception. For these purposes, Mantegna shortened feet and legs of the Christ, as if the viewer would see Him from a certain angle (Gaudio 67). This gave an opportunity to concentrate viewer’s attention on Christ’s face and the details of the suffering reflected on it. The use of shortening is aimed to increase the feeling of closeness achieved through distortion – short feet and gradual widening and broadening of the body going upwards.

Another technique used to create the realistic impression was the application of chiaroscuro, which used the play of light and shadow in order to give Christ’s body volume through the created diversity of textures. It was also used for the creation of contrast between his body and the rest of the composition. In this regard, irrespective of the use of colour expressing mortality of Christ, the use of light rather than shadowing of his body chain viewer’s attention to him rather than the rest of the composition (Honour and Fleming 79).  The viewer is to realise “the agony of a mind already conscious of the burden it has taken upon it” (Christiansen, 37). In other words, through the depicted realism and impression the piece of art creates, the viewer takes the burden of witnessing and participation Christ’s suffering and death.

The aforementioned analysis gives an opportunity for a more profound interpretation of this work than before. The meaning of this artwork is that it shows that even God and divine figures like Christ were characterised by human nature and humanness of living and dying. There is nothing divine and supernatural in one human life, because irrespective of one’s actions and intentions, the human body is characterised by pain, suffering and eventual death. Thus, for Christ, being human meant to go through pain and suffering of death as an ordinary person without any divine salvation from the heaviness of death (Christiansen 54). In terms of human experience, this work of art is aimed to show that no matter who people are on this life and how heroic their deeds can be, in the end, all people share the same grief of death. For one to go through life with dignity, the outcome of suffering of death should be accepted just as Christ has accepted his.

Overall, from all mentioned above, it can be concluded that through the use of shortening and chiaroscuro techniques, Mantegna created a strong realist impression of the physicality of Christ’s death. This approach was s fundamental shift in depicting Christ and placing emphasis on human-centred perception of the world. Through this emphasis, Mantegna’s work can be interpreted as an attempt to force people reconsider their perception of life and accept the physicality of death in all its complexity.

Works Cited

Christiansen, K. The Genius of Andrea Mantegna. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2010. Print.

Gaudio, M. Engraving the Savage: The New World and Techniques of Civilization. Minneapolis, MN: The University of Minnesota Press. 2008. Print.

Honour, H. and Fleming, J. A World History of Art. London: Lawrence King Publishing. 2005. Print.