Annunciation to Last Judgement: Themes and Variations in Christian Art – 5. From Crucifixion to Resurrection

During the summer of 2021 we are offering a series of linked but separate study days on images from Christian Art. Each day can be booked individually.

The Summer Series will examine the main themes and many ways in which they were interpreted by artists and sculptors from the fourth to nineteenth centuries. We will consider the ways in which artists and their patrons interpreted the texts, not only of the Bible, but also the Revelations of St. Bridget and the fascinating commentaries in The Golden Legend.

Programme for Day 5

From Crucifixion to Resurrection

The Crucifixion is the most important subject of all devotional or narrative Christian art. Although usually the object of devotion either as a single image of Christ on a cross or surrounded by mourners and onlookers, it can also become an opportunity to interpret the subject in the context of everyday life, as in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s extraordinary example.  Developments during the Renaissance and Baroque periods of additional events and subjects around the Crucifixion itself, such as Christ on the Cold Stone or Vesperbild, seen in Northern Europe, or the Raising of the Cross. The subject of the Resurrection itself does not appear in the Biblical texts which only describe the arrival of the Marys, and, in St John’s Gospel, alone, the meeting between Christ and Mary Magdalene is described (beautifully expressed in Titian’s example in the National Gallery) and gave Claude the excuse to focus on the landscape rather than the figures.

Lectures

1. The Way to Calvary and The Raising of the Cross
2. The Crucifixion from the ninth to fifteenth centuries
3. Later developments of The Crucifixion, Lamentation, Pietà and The Entombment
4. The Resurrection

Future day

• Ascension, Pentecost, Last Judgement 24 Sep 2021