A Dirge Over His Body (Art no.5) by sandra46
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Description
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ is a sacred Christian subject which became popular since the 14th century and especially during the Renaissance. In it, Jesus is portrayed after his deposition from the cross, surrounded by various mourning characters. In the miracle plays on the Passion of Christ, this scene of Mourning is among the Deposition from the Cross and the Deposition in the Sepulchre. In sculpture the label identifies a group of statues, life size, with the body of Christ lying on the ground now marked by rigor mortis set in the middle of the scene and figures of bystanders arranged in a semicircle around it to obtain a clear theatrical effect, and thereby encourage the identification of the faithful in the tragic event. The production of these statuary groups, mostly carved from wood or molded in clay, is significant in France and some other European countries, but it is especially popular, along with the search for new modes of expression, in Northern Italy, in the area between the Piedmont, Eastern Lombardy, Emilia and Veneto. Many generous local donors sponsored such important works, in a cultural context of Franciscan spirituality. The tendency to decorate the churches with such groups, entrusting the execution to workshops of woodcarvers or potters lasts throughout the 15th century to the first three or four decades of the 16th century, then declining rapidly under the impetus of new tastes in art and new pedagogical functions entrusted to sacred art, but never disappears. Partly because of the humble medium with which they are made, highbrow critics ans art historians rarely if ever got interested in these witnesses of popular artistic taste, regarded as a naive expression of popular devotion, that, in the iconographic solutions adopted, closely recalled the ancient pagan ritual of keening. Only the last three decades of the 20th century have seen an increasing attention that led to the publication of a large number of essays and restoration efforts also related to museum exhibitions. In Piedmont, in the Duchy of Savoy, significant points of contact are detectable with the artistic production area of Burgundy. The statuary group of which this photo is a detail can be seen at the Civic Museum of Old Arts in Turin, Italy. It was carved by an unknown medieval Piedmont artist. I use the word artist in its widest meaning, since as I have already said, these people have been considered mere craftsmen for too long time.
Thank you for your kind comments.
Comments (45)
beatoangelico
excellent image and great work my Friend..!!!
thecytron
Stunning photo manipulation!
anmes
This is a wonderful shot...I've looked at many, many altarpieces etc over the years but I don't think ever have seen tears such as these. great work then and now, Sandra.
alessimarco
Fabulous capture!!
MagikUnicorn
VERY NICE
Darkwish
Great idea, very nicely done.
mickeyrony
Surely a statue, watching my Beatiful. An excellent narrative. Bravo and thanks again mile ((5 + +)) Surement une statue bien regarder ma Belle . Une narration excellente . Bravo et mile mercis encore ((5++))
amota99517
What a wonderful piece. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share this with you.
schonee
Very Beautiful! and sad
0rest4wicked
Wonderful narrative!
danapommet
Super information Sandra and a great capture. Dana
myrrhluz
Craftsman means highly skilled. That skill is not just in the manual dexterity but also in the ability to bring out the inner beauty in an object and emotional impact. I think 'mere craftsman' is an oxymoron. You can't even have a unskilled craftsman because in the meaning of the word is skilled. How can someone who is highly skilled be 'mere'. Excellent capture of a very emotional work. Wonderful detail of her grief, centered on her tears and Jesus' hand cradled in her own.
Marinette
ancora un'altra bellissima foto e storia. :)
Chipka
I don't know how I missed this one, but I'm glad I saw it now! What a piece of art. Like many, I often wonder what real purpose art critics serve, especially since their "highbrow" manner tends to degrade into a form of accidental self-parody! And I do see a relation between the visual element of this sort of art and the ancient custom of keening...itself a rather sophisticated form of funerary observance; variations of it have existed throughout antiquity though I think the ancient Egyptians had the most spectacular version of it. They'd hire armies of professional mourners, mostly women, to march in front of a funeral procession, wailing in a rather musical and synchronized way while throwing dust onto their heads. I have no idea what this has to do with this image, but I kinda like it anyway. As for the image itself, it's a wonderful piece of art in the broadest and truest sense, and superb craftsmanship in the most complimentary sense. I love the details, the frailty of the whole scene, though it's unrevealed here, and the raw, naked, crackling humanity--despite my reluctance to indulge too much contemplation of the subject matter: if you've seen one dead Jesus, you've seen them all, I heard a guy in Prague say, upon witnessing a somewhat rare (for Prague) Lamentation scene of Christian pedigree; I laughed out loud when I heard that...but I also noticed that if you look past the religious baggage and simply see the art for what it is, you get quite an understanding of art itself, and the way ancient (or only partly ancient) people thought, and THAT is what I like about this sort of stuff. I love what you've photographed and the way you present it, and your writing, as always, just pulls me right in.
anahata.c
I like everything chip said, and I agree that when one lifts this from the baggage of religion, it's very human & powerful. In fact, these "secondary arts" (as some historians called them) are powerful precisely because they cut to the quick of human experience. And, re the massivity of the Church, pieces like this cut away the pomp & circumstance of religious institutions overall & reveal the visceral yearnings at their core. I mean, consider the simple gesture of this woman weeping---I can't tell if it's Mary or a woman who happens to be present at the scene: her downturned cupped eyes, then her downturned cupped chin, lips & cheeks, all in harmony with the eyes (a minimalist version of that "resonance" I spoke of, re african masks: ie, lines resonating across the face); and those oh-so tactile tears. These speak of a visceral, direct approach to mourning. And if we compare it to a "fine art" example---we'll use Michelangelo's famous Pietà ---it would be easy to decry your image as a cheaper work, designed to evoke more simplistic even sentimental emotion. Which is one of the reasons the critical & academic establishment regarded such works as "secondary" for so long... But to compare this with the Michelangelo is instructive. (Here's a link to the Michelangelo, just for easy reference: I know you've seen it many times. Here. Click on the image to see it full size.) Your artist isn't interested in the linear language of Michelangelo---the way M creates fugues and rivers with the folds of Mary's gown. And this artist isn't interested in the refined emotion that Michelangelo evokes---the way M's virgin tilts her head ever so gently, and creates a look of grief modified with acceptance and control. (It's almost impossible to feel any wrenching at all in M's Mary---even though her whole demeanor ripples into the universe with his beautiful visual music. In fact, M's virgin is articulated as much through her gown & its exquisitely articulated folds as through her face: Her face is delicate and so subtle, he seems to be inviting us to weep 'for' her. Whereas your artist is interested in the grief itself, its sting, its immediacy, its very contours. This is highly symbolic art, whereas Michelangelo's---for its multiple aesthetic layers---is more refined, more removed from 'direct emotion'. M's may turn marble into rippling and articulate light, but this piece doesn't aspire to that: It's about a simple portrayal of the most direct experience. The woman's face is so remarkably smooth & direct, here it makes us feel that her grief is smooth & direct too. There is far less intermediary of the bach-like music in M. The comparison is glib, I reallize (and I've said nothing of Christ in the Michelangelo, or the fact that it's just two people, or in marble, etc). But the comparison makes its point nevertheless. Namely that the 'fine art' Michelangelo is more remote to visceral mourning. Despite its visual opulence, it's gone through so many layers of aesthetic refinement that it came out caressing us as much as wringing us. While M could conjure fury & rage, he processed those emotions through line, shape & contour, etc. So by comparison, your piece feels "unprocessed," and there's something very touching about that---ie, how the artist used the simplest lines & contours to express such raw feeling. It's one reason why modern artists championed such pieces; because they found solace in the simplicity & formal grace of such piece. And it was with the changes of the 70s and 80s that the academic world started to accept so many forms of art that had hitherto been relegated to 'folk arts' and 'secondary' arts, etc. It took that long. I was a grad student in the 70s, I saw the revolution happen. And in its early phases, many asked, "why are we studying 'this'?" Some felt betrayed to be applying such time & effort to works so 'outside' the academic pale. (While not questioning so many works inside that pale, which were mediocre to vapid.) Well I'm just trying to amplify your thoughts, give examples for them, and hope I'm not burdening your uploads with too much verbiage. But see, you've posed all the essential questions, you've shown the way to new attitudes, you've shown us a closeup of wrenching direct emotion, and you've even made a link to modern art whether you intended to or not. And you've embraced, for your viewer, a form of art that many viewers still tend to dismiss as quaint & "folksy". Another fine entry in this series, Sandra, worthy of you, the series, and the artists you represent. Ok, now I'll shuddup (lol)...