Knowledge and Identitiy: Andrea Mantegna's Lamentation over the Dead Christ
By Dan Starling
During the Renaissance a new notion of the individual was created. This identity was formed through knowledge based on the relationship of the individual to the world in which they lived. At the time, new forms of knowledge were being pursued and old ones were being questioned or repositioned. The debate over the relationship of past and present knowledge of the divine or ‘ideal’ to science and nature changed the way that people viewed themselves. Individual identity is constructed in Andrea Mantegna’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ through the confrontation of different forms of knowledge. The body of Christ is the place where knowledge is deposited and discussed. At one time this figure is a depiction of God and the ideal body while at the same time it shows the mortality of the human being. The drastic foreshortened viewpoint heightens the individual’s connection with the image. This image uses the juxtaposition of subjective versus objective knowledge to allow the viewer a better understanding of themselves and their relationship to the divine.
Andrea Mantegna was aware of the new consciousness about the individual. By
the time he was thirty years old he was the most celebrated painter in Northern
Italy . The evidence that exists in Mantegna’s paintings has lead many
art historians to conclude that he was one of the leading historical thinkers
of his time . Mantegna’s childhood was spent in Padua and early in his
career he became an apprentice to Francesco Squarcione, an artist . In 1460,
Mantegna moved to Mantua to work as the court painter of Lodovico Gonzaga .
Mantegna’s thinking was influenced by the humanist tutors who were employed
by the court . Humanists were interested in the revival of ancient texts to
their ‘pure’ form . Mantegna knew of Leon Battista Alberti’s
writing, especially his seminal work On Painting that described painting as
a synthesis of form and content . Many of the depictions of narrative scenes
in Mantegna’s work are a result of composition and figuration formulated
through writers like Alberti. Alberti describes how God created nature for man
. The relationship of man and nature was beginning to be articulated in new
ways through the arts . A new interest in the anatomy of the human body sparked
a debate about the relationship between the body and soul that also called into
question the role of man in the natural world . At this time the notion of the
‘ideal’ body was strongly held by those artists who depicted the
human figure . These notions also changed the relationship of artists to the
divine in their depictions. God was seen as being more personal to each individual.
It is against this backdrop that around 1480 Mantegna painted the Lamentation
over the Dead Christ (fig. 1). At first glance the Dead Christ or Cristo in
scurto (the foreshortened Christ), as the picture was know, is a devotional
image: the culmination of Christ’s suffering . The foreshortened dead
body of Christ on a marble slab fills the image; Christ’s feet with their
wounds project out into the space of the viewer. The history of the image is
somewhat unknown and it has been speculated that it was a personal devotional
image for Mantegna . The very nature of the painting centres on the individual.
The information that the Dead Christ relates is a result of its use of perspectival
depiction. The dramatic foreshortening in Mantegna’s image has intrigued
many critics and has been analyzed for is pictorial devices. Robert Smith has
demonstrated through photographs that the figure of Christ corresponds to the
proportions of a figure seen at a distance of 25 metres . The slab on which
the figure is lying contradicts this calculation because it has the perspective
scheme of a distance of approximately 2 metres. When a real figure is viewed
at a distance of 2 metres the body’s proportion appears distorted; the
size of the feet become very large when compared with the size of the head .
One interpretation of this contradiction is that Mantegna did not apply the
perspective distortion to the figure because it does not have the same linear
qualities of the slab . As well, it has been shown that the picture can be viewed
as a natural scene for a single viewer standing in the correct position . This
is supported by the debate of Mantegna’s contemporaries that there was
only one correct point of viewing . Alberti claimed that a painting could never
appear truthful without a definite viewing distance . Therefore, the objective
view of mathematics would be uncompromised by the artist’s own vision.
This argument is complicated by the fact that the rules of perspective and
vision were not clearly understood at this time and Mantegna may have omitted
distortion of the figure because he was not comfortable with the laws of mathematical
perspective . In this case, the image is infused with the subjective ability
of the painter’s
hand to render the image. The eye can in fact compensate to a certain degree
for the distortion of a foreshortened figure when seen naturally . Leonardo
was aware of the changes in scale between objects viewed at a distance, but
no evidence has suggested that he used this information when rendering the body
in perspective . A device capable of overcoming the deficiencies of the human
eye was Alberti’s velo: a screen of perpendicular and parallel lines .
Such a device can be seen in Albrect Dürer’s woodcut: Draftsman drawing
a Reclining Nude (fig. 2). From this image we can see that if the draftsman
were to draw the figure as seen, it would have been described in sharpe foreshortening.
The detached, observational view of the draftsman contrasts the gratuitous gaze
of the viewer who can see the entire body of the nude female. The presentation
of the figure in this way suggests that it was drawn for the viewer and that
the draftsman was not actually depicting the nude from his angle . It is doubtful
whether such a device as the velo was even used in practice . In contrast, Vasari
noted that perspective was a manifestation of the artist’s own vision
and was a result of study from life . The scientific formula of perspective
is usurped by Mantegna’s personal interpretation.
The combination of art and science in the Dead Christ allows us to think about
why Mantegna’s subjective construction of the figure in the face of scientific
principles was so important. Evident in Dürer’s woodcut is the disparity
between the calculated mathematical viewpoint and idealizing gaze of the viewer
. Mantegna may have consciously abandoned the perspectival distortion of the
figure due to another reason: its interference with the notion of the ‘ideal’
body. The idea of the ‘ideal’ human body of proportion described
by the Roman architect Vitruvius in his Vitruvian man was revived at this time
by humanists . As well, the ideal set of proportions, based on the harmonic
division of line according to the ratio of the golden section, was searched
for in real humans by direct measurement of the body . For artists geometrical
order in perspectival space was crucial for the correct portrayal of the human
figure . In Mantegna’s image Christ’s body is infused with this
order by making no one part of the body larger or more dominant. This natural
order was linked with the divine. Leonardo regarded man as a microcosm for the
supreme creation of nature . He sought to extract the underlying principles
of nature and recreated them in his pictures impersonally . For Dürer,
the role of the artist was to act as an informed conduit for God’s depiction
of nature . In the same way, Mantegna sought to convey in his body of Christ
the ideal scientific human, God’s creation. Because of this, the perspective
distortion of Christ’s body is omitted because it interferes with Mantegna’s
ability to comprehend the image based on his understanding of nature and the
divine. Mantegna is negotiating the challenge that science posed to the divine
by calling up the study of the body.
This battle of ‘old knowledge’ with the ‘new knowledge’
obtained through the study of nature contributed to a changing understanding
of science and religion. The viewpoint of the dead body of Christ allowed viewers
to think about the Lamentation in a new way. The viewpoint calls up a body on
display that can be scrutinized and analyzed. At this time a ‘new science’
of human anatomy would challenge the way people related to the world around
them . In 1482 the Church sanctioned in medical schools the dissection of the
bodies of convicted criminals . Before this time, to deliberately puncture and
explore the spaces of the human body would be to disrupt the relationship between
the body and mind; the body was only viewed as a carrier for the mind and soul
. From the end of the fifteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century the culture
of dissection was devoted to the gathering of information and the dissemination
of the mystery of the human body . This inquiry helped to promote the construction
of individuality and formulate the notion of ‘selfhood’ . The characteristics
of the internal body changed the way people saw the meaning of being alive.
It was discovered that the interior components of the human body had certain
variations that were unique to each person . Ethnographically, this knowledge
was used to secure so called ‘scientific’ differences between races
and gender. This information was used as evidence to show that women were less
intelligent . For example, the size of a woman’s brain is smaller when
compared with that of a man. The knowledge was also used by Europeans to claim
the ownership of lands in the New World in the explorations of Columbus as well
as to claim superiority over conquered peoples . Also, this understanding of
the body changed the relationship of the mind and body. The ability of the mind
to explore and formulate abstract thoughts was intertwined with the knowledge
of physical human body. All of these factors contributed to a new self-knowledge
and made society more individualistic.
This information affected artists just as much as it affected society in general.
An understanding of the interior of the body was crucial for artists to correctly
depict the human form . Alberti suggests that artists should depict the body
by starting with the bones, then the tendons and muscles, and finally the flesh
and skin . Vasari also stressed the importance of understanding of the internal
workings of the body as critical for transfer between surface and depth . In
describing the dead Christ in Michelangelo’s pieta Vasari noted:
It would be impossible to find a body showing greater mastery of art and possessing
more beautiful members, or a nude with more details in the muscles, veins,
and nerves stretched over their framework of bones, or a more deathly corpse
.
Michelangelo and Leonardo were able to gain their experience in the hospitals
of Florence and in their drawings they emphasize the muscles under the skin
of the body .
However, in the fifteenth century an artist’s experience of dissection
was limited and it is hard to provide evidence that any artist before Michelangelo
or Leonardo had any “hands on” experience . Until this point the
painter had to rely on surface inspection of the body and the use of plaster
casts . However, it is clear that an interest in the subject of the interior
of the human body was present in the fifteenth century. Mantegna may have accumulated
his knowledge through his relationship with the Paduan doctor Savonarola and
his humanistic studies . In Mantegna’s Dead Christ the skin is pulled
taught over the torso exposing the rib cage, the pectoral and abdominal muscles.
The paint is exactingly applied and its quality is crisp. The weight of the
body is seen in the hang of the shoulders and arms. Each of these devices indicates
Mantegna’s interest in the interior of the body and his study of its form.
Through his depiction of the material body Mantegna also captures its state.
In On Painting Alberti describes that “in the one who is dead truly there
is no member which does not appear deathly; they all hang, the hands, the fingers,
the neck, all fall languidly; indeed they all work together in expressing the
death of the body” . Symbolically, the spear wound in Christ’s torso
echoes the dissection of the body. The surgeon was akin to the artist in that
both could go beyond the surface of the body to encounter the core of reality
. Mantegna’s Dead Christ calls up the new interest in the scientific exploration
of the body. The position of Mantegna’s Christ can be compared to Rembrandt’s
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Joan Deymam (fig. 3) from 1656. Rembrandt was aware of
Mantegna’s Dead Christ and may have used the figure as a model for his
image . Mantegna’s positioning of the body is suitable for the dissection
of a corpse. By using this vocabulary to depict the Dead Christ Mantegna locates
the body within contemporary debates. Christ is situated simultaneously in the
past historically and the present physically. This gives the viewer a direct
and personal relationship to the body before them.
The possession of this new understanding and knowledge of the body was specifically
male. Only males were allowed to participate in dissection as well as the study
of the nude body . Males were given the special awareness of their internal
self. In Mantegna’s Dead Christ this consciousness is located in not only
a male body but in the spiritual body Christ. When compared to Botticelli’s
Birth of Venus (fig. 4) the female figure of Venus appears to be idealized to
the point where she is de-anatomized . One way this worked in the image was
to distance the viewer from the object of his gaze and made female nudity acceptable.
Similarily, Vasari cited the anatomy of Christ in Michelangelo’s pieta
and not the body of the Virgin . The Virgin remains youthful, unaware of the
ravages of time and death in her own body. By not giving the female an internal
body they were not given the a certain kind of knowledge. Mantegna’s depiction
of the Virgin works in a different way. The weeping Virgin is depicted as old
and ragged in contrast to the body of Christ. This compels the viewer to enact
a parallel relationship with the weeping Virgin because their contemplation
over the body is similar. The Virgin has the knowledge of the body because she
is akin to the male viewer. As well, this serves to heighten the youthfulness,
nakedness and sexuality of the body of Christ.
The semi-nude body of Christ emphasizes God’s humanity. As a result the
viewer establishes an individual experience of God. At this time, the acceptance
of nakedness in art was easier to achieve in religious settings . Leo Steinberg
has explored the tradition of the sexuality of Christ in Renaissance art. He
finds that the sexualized depiction of Christ serves to humanize God as a mortal
being . The sexual nature of Christ is shown through his nudity and through
his covered penis. Christ’s first wound is his circumcision, depicted
by Mantegna’s Circumcision, 1488 (fig. 5). This first suffering can be
seen as analogous to Christ’s last suffering on the cross . Circumcision
is comparable to dissection that was associated with the erotic penetration
of the human body . Indeed, Christ’s ‘Passion’ on the cross
was a result of the penetration of his body with nails . The accessibility and
vulnerability of Christ’s figure was a technique used to get closer to
the body physically and spiritually.
At the same time, Christ retains the position of authority over the viewer
by the symbol of his phallus. The post mortem revival can be seen as an equation
between erection and resurrection and has its roots in pre-Christian antiquity
. Direct confrontation with Christ’s penis was too problematic for the
viewer to handle. Instead, by the mid-fifteenth century a cleaver way to avoid
direct depiction of Christ’s member had been devised in northern art:
the enhanced loincloth over Christ’s waist . In Mantegna’s Lamentation
over the Dead Christ the loincloth is used to emphasize Christ’s phallus.
The cloth is draped over the body in such a way as to show the exact form of
the body beneath. Christ’s legs are well defined under the cloth and a
clear bulge is created at Christ’s groin. The use of this type of cloth
to show the underlying body is in accordance with the notion of the ‘ideal’
body. The insertion of power goes in hand with the personal relationship of
the viewer to the figure of Christ. The sexuality of Christ is a statement of
God’s humanity . The symbol of God’s humanization through the sexual
member of Christ shows a new understanding of people’s relationship to
the divine. At once the viewer is closer to Christ but still understands his
position of authority.
Through scientific enquiry the body of Christ is more human. However, the subject
of Christ’s death calls up the problem of what happens to the body or
soul after it is dead. In the depiction of Christ after the crucifixion Mantegna
has highlighted a very problematic time in Christianity. In this moment, Christ
is in a state of being and non-being, between physicality and spirituality.
In effect the greatest fear for the devoted worshiper is not being resurrected
and not going to heaven. In the period after Christ’s death scientific
inquiry challenged the basis of religious belief. Now that the viewer is personally
connected to the image it is important that they are inspired by it as well.
Christ encompasses the notion of the perfect human as an inspirational image
for his worshippers. The body of Christ, even though dead and having been on
the cross, still retains its muscularity and his skin has not deteriorated.
The image of the Dead Christ brings the subject of biological death and religious
death into close juxtaposition. Christ is not able to overcome the laws of nature
that govern the world . If the laws of nature are so powerful that even Christ
cannot overcome them, how could a regular person? This feeling is conveyed though
the way Christ is represented. In Hans Holbein’s The Body of the Dead
Christ in the Tomb (fig. 6) Christ’s body appears savagely beaten and
decomposing . Holbein’s Dead Christ, locked in a tomb, does not suggest
any hope of salvation through resurrection . In contrast, Mantegna provides
only a selective assertion of Christ’s mutilation and death . Inspired
by the exploration of the body, the human fear of biological expiry became paramount.
Mantegna’s painting is fighting the human fear of biological death with
the ability of God to transcend that death. This image gives hope to the viewer
in the resurrection of the dead body. The reason for the greater humanization
of God and a more personal connection is to overcome this increased fear.
In the Renaissance, science, art and religion were not in opposition as they
are portrayed in the twentieth century. These endeavors were integrated in
order to come up with an understanding of the physical world. It was the advances
in thinking around these areas that refashioned old ideas about the ‘self’.
Mantegna’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ captures the process of individual
exploration and the pursuit of knowledge. Through the investigation of mathematical
perspective and the inner biology of the body, science made people more self-aware.
Along with a better personal understanding the individual there was also a more
personal view of the divine. It is the push and pull of these forms of knowledge
that was the basis for the new way of thinking about the individual during the
Renaissance.
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Kemp, Maritn. “The Mean and Measure of all Things.” in 1492 –
Age of Exploration
(Washington D.C.: National Gallery Exhibition Catalogue 1992): 95-111.
Kristeva, Julia. “Holbein’s Dead Christ.” in Zone 3 (19 ):
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