Artworks about Easter, from Da Vinci's Last Supper to The Resurrection
What are the most famous paintings about the life of Jesus Christ? Get to know the story of Easter, through ten delicate paintings about religious episodes, around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ here.
1.The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
The Last Supper is the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before being betrayed, arrested and crucified. This last meal became the biblical basis for the Eucharist. The gospels say that at the Last Supper, Jesus predicted that one of his disciples would betray him, and that Peter would deny knowing him 3 times. The Last Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci is currently in the Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan and measures 460 cm x 880 cm. This painting is a balanced composition, where gesture is of great relevance, as it is through it that emotions are transmitted and the pictorial narrative is constructed. From the Renaissance, the architecture, located in the background, serves as a support to the characters, highlighting them and attributing depth to the painting. Another element, which appeared at this time, was the vanishing point, which in the Last Supper, in terms of perspective, is Jesus Christ, who is in the center of the painting.
2.The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane by Andrea Mantegna
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Agony in the Garden is the first Dolorous Mystery of the Rosary and the First Station of the Cross. In this famous Easter painting is portrait Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper while the disciples sleep and Judas leads the crowd.The intense study of Classical Antiquity aroused in the painter Mantegna an intense interest in stone reliefs, sculptural ruins, precious marbles, exotic stones and cameos, to the point that the tablet did not seem to be painted with a brush, but carved in living rock. The representation is full of intellectual meanings placed in a solemn and precious style that molds each object to fix its truth, its solidity and its statuary immortality, in a scenography determined by symbols, by gestures, by calculated direction of movement as in the theater, showing us his intensely metaphorical pictorial language.
3.The Betrayal of Christ by Caravaggio
The Betrayal of Christ is the biblical episode in which Judas offers a kiss to Jesus, to identify him among the chief priests to later be arrested. Among many painters who portrayed this episode, we highlight the painter Caravaggio, the master of Baroque painting. Jesus with the hands close to the body in a sign of surrender at the moments of their capture is contrasted with the power of the soldiers with their black and polished armour. The various expressions of Jesus, Judas and the Fleeing Disciple, lend an emotional depth to the painting. Lost for nearly 200 years, this painting was rediscovered in 1990 in a house in Dublin, Ireland. It is currently on display at the National Gallery of Ireland. The Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (1573-1610), became famous for several paintings from “The Betrayal of Christ”, as well as “The Crucifixion of Saint Peter” and the “Martyrdom of Saint Matthew”.
4.Jesus about to be struck in front of former High Priest Annas de José Sotero de Madrazo y Agudo
In this famous religious painting we see the judgment of Jesus before assembly. Jesus Christ is iconographically represented with white malt and with a calm and strong reaction. The characteristics of the characters, whether their features or anatomy, represent some of the key points of the neo-classical movement. This religious scene, with its life-size figures, is treated in the sober manner usually applied to scenes from Roman history. It was the first major painting produced by Madrazo while training in Paris under Jacques-Louis David, and it earned him an increase in his Charles IV Scholarship, allowing him to continue his studies in Rome.
5.The Denial of Peter by Carl Heinrich Bloch
Jesus predicted that Peter would deny knowing him, stating that Peter would disown him before the cock crowed the next morning. The gospels tell us that Peter in fact denied Jesus 3 times and when he realized what he did, he cried. This is known as Peter's repentance and it is this act of denial that is portrayed here.
6.The Flagellation of Christ by Rubens
The flagellation of Christ is a scene from the Passion of Christ very often depicted in Christian religious art. This painting is part of a large panel dating from around 1614. It is one of a series of fifteen panels painted by eleven artists, including Maerten de Vos, Anthony van Dyck and Jacques Jordaens. In this pictorial composition, the impressive direct and restless brushstrokes stand out, the sculptural power of the characters and the balanced composition around the figure of Christ in the center. Contact with the coloring of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese had a lasting influence on Rubens' work. He became a court painter to the Duke of Mantua, which gave him the opportunity to study ancient painting and sculpture from the collection of the ducal palace. At court there were still magnificent specimens of horses and exotic animals that would serve as models in paintings of hunting scenes.
7.The Christ Carrying the Cross by El Greco
According to the Gospels, a woven crown of thorns was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. In El Greco's powerful religious painting, we see Jesus carrying the cross with the crown of thorns and with drops of blood on his face. Christ is painted with a tearful gaze, directed at the viewer. El Greco was a Spanish painter of Greek origin, with an unmistakable style due to his representation of figures. He became an exponent of Spanish mannerism and his work represented an anticipation of the Baroque.
8. Tissot's Crucifixion
The French artist's crucifixion is treated in a peculiar way, as Jesus Christ is not represented. The spectator is given a vision of Christ himself and what he witnessed in his last hours. Normally, in a depiction entitled Christ Crucified it is obviously that Jesus will be painted as the central figure, but here in Tissot's painting, the only thing the viewer can see are his feet. Jacques Joseph Tissot became a famous painter with his paintings filled with women dressed according to the period, displayed in various scenes of everyday life, and also due to biblical scenes, like this one.
9.The Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio
After the crucifixion of Christ, the disciples and Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, they helped Christ down from the cross and laid him in the tomb. This painting, like all baroque masterpieces, is disturbed by darkness. There's a word for that: tenebrous, which means dark style. This has the desired effect of making the viewer concentrate on the figures in the painting and the action rather than what is happening in the foreground. the body of Jesus, was painted to demonstrate the suffering of the moment. One of the characteristics of baroque painting, also present here, is the breaking of the space between painting and spectator, so that the latter feels more like part of the painting.
10.The Resurrection of Piero della Francesca
The Gospels state that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ this was placed in the tomb between Friday night and Sunday morning. On the third day, he rose from the dead and appeared alive to his disciples. In Piero della Francesca's Resurrection, we see that Christ was portrayed as both man and God, with a non-idealized face, a spotless body resembling a sculpture. This resurrection painting is also unusual in that it has two vanishing points. Piero was commissioned to paint the fresco for the Gothic-style Residenza, the communal meeting room that was used exclusively by the Conservatori, the chief magistrates and governors, who before starting their councils, prayed before the image. Placed high on the inner wall facing the entrance, the fresco has as its theme an allusion to the name of the city (meaning "Holy Sepulchre"), derived from the presence of two relics of the Holy Sepulcher carried by two pilgrims in the 9th century. Piero's Christ is also present on the city's coat of arms.
