The Passion in Art

by Harries,Richard

• ISBN13: 9780754650119
• ISBN10: 0754650111
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-11-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Jesus was not depicted on the cross until the early fifth century. Since then this scene has been painted or carved in sharply differing ways.With the aid of over thirty full-page plates, The Passion in Art explores the historical contexts and theologies that led to such differing depictions. Because the first Christians saw the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus as different aspects of a unified victory over sin and death, scenes of the Passion are juxtaposed with some of the Resurrection, which again are highly varied in what they do and do not show.This is the first book to consider the Passion as portrayed in the whole sweep of Christian history. Each picture is considered both from the point of view of its context and its theological standpoint.Spanning the centuries, the images reproduced and discussed include: scenes from the Passion of Christ in the Catacombs of Domitilla, mosaics in Ravenna, the Rabbula Crucifixion and Resurrection, the Crucifixion Plaque from Metz, the Gero Crucifix, Cimabue's Crucifix, Giotto's Noli me Tangere, Piero della Francesca's Resurrection, the Isenheim altarpiece, Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, Rembrandt's Christ on the Cross, Chagall's White Crucifixion, contemporary paintings by Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland, Nicholas Mynheer, and many more works of great acclaim.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Introduction	xi
Symbols in the Catacombs
Second and Third Centuries	1	(4)
The Victory of the Passion
A Fourth-Century Sarcophagus	5	(6)
The First Depiction of Christ on the Cross
A Fifth-Century Ivory	11	(4)
The Women Discover the Empty Tomb
A Sixth-Century Mosaic	15	(4)
Christ in a Long Tunic
A Sixth-Century Gospel Book	19	(4)
On the Edges of Empire
Signs in Stone from the Seventh Century	23	(6)
Christ Dead on the Cross
An Eleventh-Century Mosaic	29	(4)
Doubting Thomas
A Byzantine Mosaic	33	(4)
The Anastasis
An Eleventh-Century Mosaic	37	(6)
Classical and Cosmic
A Carolingian Bookcover of the Crucifixion from the Ninth Century	43	(4)
A Sense of the Poignant
An Ottonian Crucifix of the Tenth Century	47	(4)
Christ Reigns from the Cross as Priest and King
A Romanesque Carving of the Eleventh Century	51	(6)
On the Road to Emmaus
A Romanesque Relief of the Twelfth Century	57	(4)
The Chairete
A Venetian Mosaic of the Twelfth Century	61	(4)
The Influence of the Theologians
A Thirteenth-Century Illuminated Gospel	65	(4)
The Sublime Cimabue (1240-1302)	69	(4)
Noli Me Tangere
Giotto's Masterpiece of the Early Fourteenth Century	73	(4)
A Lily Crucifix of the Late Fourteenth Century	77	(4)
The Anastasis
A Fourteenth-Century Fresco	81	(4)
The Man of Sorrows (c. 1490)	85	(4)
Christ Rises from the Grave
Piero della Francesca's Humanist Vision of the Fifteenth Century	89	(4)
Extreme Agony
The Isenheim Altarpiece	93	(4)
The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio in the Seventeenth Century	97	(4)
Jesus Alone
Rembrandt	101	(4)
Caspar David Friedrich and the Cross in Landscape	105	(4)
The White Crucifixion
Marc Chagall	109	(6)
Christ on the Cross
Georges Rouault	115	(4)
The Crucifixion
Stanley Spencer	119	(4)
The Noli Me Tangere
Graham Sutherland	123	(4)
The Supper at Emmaus
Ceri Richards	127	(4)
'A Sword Shall Pierce through Thy Own Soul'
Crucifixion by Helen Meyer	131	(4)
Menorah
Roger Wagner	135	(4)
The Incredulity of Thomas
Nicholas Mynheer	139	(2)
Notes	141	(4)
Index	145