Andrea Mantegna, Christ as the Suffering Redeemer - 1495-1500

by Atelier Liesjes

The Gospel according to St. Luke begins its account of the resurrection as follows (24: 1-2):

"Now, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb and brought with them the spices they had prepared, and some others."

This painting follows the text in its depiction of the landscape in the background. The women approach on the road leading from Jerusalem to Golgotha. However, the main characters in the painting, Christ and two angels, are not mentioned in the source text.

Merging two image types

Half cloaked in his cerements, the risen Christ shows his five wounds. Together with two angels supporting him, he appears to praise the Lord with a song of thanksgiving. In other words, Mantegna created a painting that combines two types of images with foreground and background.

The background refers to the story of St. Luke, while the image of Christ is a so-called devotional image, a type of image that condenses a biblical event (here the Passion) into a single intense close-up.

Mantegna's interest in ancient Rome

Mantegna was one of the most prominent artists of 15th-century Italy and is known for his interest in the civilization of ancient Rome. This interest is evident in the porphyry sarcophagus on which Christ and the angels rest.

Andrea Mantegna (Piazzola sul Brenta (province of Padua), circa 1431 - Mantua, Sept. 13, 1506) was an Italian painter. In 1460 he was appointed court artist of the house of Gonzaga, the dukes of Mantua.

Mantegna was a renaissance artist, so he used many classical elements in his work. Mantegna was influenced by Donatello in this regard. Mantegna's use of perspective was magnificent for the time. He also knew the anatomy of the human body well, and he was also able to use the difficult technique of shortening.