Andrea Mantegna's The Dead Christ: A Unique Reminiscence of Jesus' Death - Essay Sample

Introduction

The painting of Andrea Mantegna, The Dead Christ, and ca.148 is one of the works of arts that seems to stand out of the reminiscence period. There are several aspects of this painting that makes it look entirely different from the piece of art of the era. While it might look quite simple from the outline one of the thing that seems to be unique about the painting is that it appears to powerfully reflect and bring about a sense of nostalgia as one remembers the death of Jesus. From a closer analysis of the art, one can see how the author uses the aspect of material and colour variation and tone.

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A closer glance at the painting, one seems to get the feeling of the process that was involved in coming up with the work. Mantegna appears to present the preparatory sketch of this painting. It is called Man lying slab and was one of the greatest shows of Italian reminiscence (Campbell & Koering, 2016). Besides, he uses limited colour ranges- grey, pink, dusty blues as a way to add and weight on the atmosphere of the colour and seems to make people to get drawn to space. Besides, the author makes the ribcage, to get faintly marked with an almost decorative laceration. The designs make them seem like they get slightly swelled. The wounds in both the legs and the hands also look curious. They are open and dry, and the flesh appears dusty and cracked.

The other thing that one can quickly see about the painting is the choice of focus that the artist has chosen. In the picture, the figure of the body is not just in a room. It gets made as to the centre painting. The artist tries to ensure that the picture fills the entire squire. In this way, one might not be distracted by anything else. Also, the figure of the women standing beside the body does not seem to divert the focus on the body (Quash, 2016). From the way the painter is focusing on the figure, one can relate to the Renascence emotional painting of the time. At this time, the artists were much more focused on bringing out the emotions in the art, and thus, Andrea Mantegna has succeeded in bringing this fact out.

The artist uses foreshortening. The style in this painting helps to bring the figure much close to the view, thus highlights specific issues. Some problems highlighted from the use of this method include; the drying of the skin, the shape of the nails, and the lifelessness of the body. One can feel that the artist was keen to bring about the humanism of Jesus (Quash, 2016). Besides, the approach invites one to move up the body. This feeling gets one experiencing a sort of a landscape towards the face. The focal point, in this case, is the face that seems to depict the death. Previous painting sought to present Jesus as a hero that had conquered death. However, in this case, Jesus is present as the human that can experience death just like anyone else.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it seems evident that the Mantegna seeks to draw us into a closer look of the face and realize the death of Jesus. The painter seeks to make one understand the absoluteness of the end. The approach thus helps to bring out the significance of the resurrection.

References

Campbell, S. J., & Koering, J. (Eds.). (2016). Andrea Mantegna: Making art (history). John Wiley & Sons.

Quash, B. (2016). 'If We be Dead with Christ': Christian Visualisations of Death. Studies in Christian Ethics, 29(3), 323-330.