The Dead Christ

I chose a piece called “The Dead Christ” by Andrea Mantegna. This piece shows Christ on a bed dead. It relates to role 4 because he’s giving form to a spiritual force. Most of Mantegna’s paintings had to do with spiritual forces. Looking further into “The Dead Christ” we see an almost monstrous spectacle: a heavy corpse, seemingly swollen by the exaggerated foreshortening. At the front are two enormous feet with holes in them; on the left, some tear-stained, staring masks. But another look dissipates the initial shock, and a rational system can be discerned under the subdued light. The face of Christ, like the other faces, is seamed by wrinkles, which harmonize with the watery satin of the pinkish pillow, the pale granulations of the marble slab and the veined onyx of the ointment jar. The damp folds of the shroud emphasize the folds in the tight skin, which is like torn parchment around the dry wounds. All these lines are echoed in the wild waves of the hair.

(Marx,Daniel. Web Gallery of Art, 9/27/10, http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/mantegna/2/dead_chr.html)