The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb

This elongated panel by Hans Holbein the Younger shows the dead Christ lying on a white cloth inside a stone niche, rendered with stark realism: eyes and mouth half open, wounds to the hands, feet and side, and pale skin with greyish-green tones. The narrow, very wide format invites a fixed viewpoint, and the body seems designed for close viewing, so the feet appear to be seen from above and the face from below, while the right hand reaches toward the viewer. The light falling from above does not match the architecture of the niche, adding a sense of unreality. The folds of the cloth and the eyes still open suggest the body has just been laid down, as in a moment of transition. Scholars link the work to the Passion and to the hope of salvation, while the realism emphasises the Incarnation and the light hints at the Resurrection. It was probably conceived as part of an epitaph for the Amerbach family funerary chapel in Basel, though it never reached that site because of iconoclastic hostility during the Reformation. The image was meant to stir the devotion of the faithful.

Painter

Hans Holbein the Younger

Date

1520

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

30 × 200 cm

Museum

Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel

Movement

Northern Renaissance

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Jesus Christ, corpse, man

Share:FacebookWhatsApp