Skip to main content

Pietro Lorenzetti, 'Deposition from the Cross', 1319-20

 


Pietro Lorenzetti created his emotionally charged Deposition from the Cross for the south transept of the Lower Church at Assisi. It is a space which likely brought together all the great early Renaissance artists - Cimabue, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Giotto and Simone Martini. However, this depiction of Christ's contorted, heavy, elongated, emaciated form being lowered from the cross above, is surely one of the most memorable frescoes in the space. Not only have the pressed together faces of mother and son subsequently become symbolic of Lorenzetti's oeuvre itself, but the fresco brings together a sense of naturalism as perpetuated by Giotto, and an intense emotionality that would have surely inspired the devotional onlookers of the fourteenth century. 

Sitting within the wider narrative of Christ's life, Lorenzetti's Deposition is arranged towards the left hand side of the south transept, yet the faces of Christ and his mother still remain at the painting's epicentre, or devotional heart, balanced perhaps by the stark linearity of the cross. Mary's face shows deep sorrow and suffering through her arched, Byzantine-style eyebrows, in contrast to the peaceful face of Christ, eyes closed, almost as though he is simply sleeping. The elongated hands of Mary grasp at her son's hair, as she desperately tries to bring him closer, to meld their faces into one. With the loss of the ultramarine blue along Mary's mantle, this closeness is only more keenly felt, as the grey colours of skin and now cloth blend together. Meanwhile, a lack of surroundings and background mean that all attention is focused on the devotional event before a viewer's eye, enhancing the force of the Christological moment depicted. This enables us to appreciate the individuality of each figure, and how they contribute to the fresco as an overall whole, from the figure of Mary Magdalen who throws herself at Christ's feet, the red of her cloak almost acting as a reminder of the blood of his sacrifice, to the crowd of mourners surrounding Christ, and the figure who removes the nails from the Redeemer's feet, bracing his right leg close to the cross and using two hands to illustrate the brutal force of the action. 

Lorenzetti's fresco therefore becomes an ingenious portrayal of human emotion, depicting a cast of characters who each respond to suffering in a slightly different way, perhaps so a viewer can more keenly relate to their plight. The artist draws on the naturalism of previous fresco decoration to achieve this effect, especially prominent at the Arena Chapel, where Giotto used a variety of figures at different levels - some leaning, some bending forward and others facing away from the viewer - which Lorenzetti then incorporated into the scheme at Assisi. The body of Christ, elongated and stretched across the wall, is the connecting factor in this web of holy figures, all defined by their solid gold haloes. But fundamentally, the softness, combined with the powerful emotional impact of the two heads pressed together, makes this a truly unique Deposition, in a way which was never repeated. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mark Rothko, 'Light Red over Black', 1957

  My eye is not drawn to the painting itself but the title of the painting, 'Light Red Over Black'. We would automatically think that the black is on top of a red background, but Rothko has flipped this around, subverting the title just like he subverting the meaning of what it was to be an artist and what Art actually was. During this time, art was going through rapid changes, with abstract expressionism coming into full force (Rothko, Pollock). But Rothko showed that all this change was for the good, even if for him, it was short lived.  The colour red in this painting is searing and the black struggles to fully cover this velvety border, especially at the bottom of the canvas. Unlike the black squares which have a hazy quality to their edges, the red is clear and impregnable. It is hard to figure out what this represents - the Tate has suggested a window perhaps, but if it is a window then what are we looking out into? Perhaps it is night, or perhaps the viewer is catching ...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Everett Millais, 'Peace Concluded', 1856

  My eye is drawn to the copy of The Times clutched in the hands of the officer. The white of the figurine on the man's knee and the white of his wife's sleeves all serve to make the white paper stand out even more on the canvas. As the title of the painting suggests, this is about the end of the Crimean War, seemingly depicting a soldier who has just returned home, surrounded by his family, but the mood is perhaps less euphoric than you might expect. The soldier seems somber and weary, and his wife has a look of concern. Although on the surface it seems to be quite a harmonious composition representing a close knit and traditional family, the positioning of the man is odd. It is his wife who takes her place at the apex of the triangular composition, the soldier is reduced to an emasculated role, perhaps an invalid, as suggested by the blanket over his legs. Her face is passive, but not exactly positive. With her arms draped around her husband, she looks posed, dutiful but not...
Post a Comment
Read more

Egon Schiele, 'Dead Mother', 1910

  My eye is drawn to the hand. Those long, bony fingers are so characteristic of Schiele but here they are particularly skeletal and deathly – the veins seem to have been injected with poison. And they are a warning right in the foreground of the painting that keeps the viewer at bay as an outsider to this incredibly intimate relationship between mother and child, and sets the tone of death and mortality which hangs over the whole image. The mother cradles her child in a womb-like shroud, alluding to childbirth and the death of the mother explained in the title. She seems desperate to feel that bodily connection with her child, highlighted by the emphasis on her craned neck as she tries to connect to the baby. There is a clear link between the mother’s bent neck and the child’s bent neck, again emphasising their longing to be with each other. However, the darkness around the child is almost like ropes, with flecks of white in the painting making it look as though the darkness is wo...
Post a Comment
Read more