Christ in the Tomb
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Authors
Agnolo di Polo, attributed to
Date
Type
image
Language
Keyword
Christ , Entombed , Holy Sepulchre , Jesus , St. Mary Magdalene
Alternative Title
Abstract
This painted terracotta sculpture is in one of the chapels of the Sacro Monte at San Vivaldo. The Sacro Monte (literally sacred mountain) is a pilgrimage site built by the Franciscans. Small chapels each contain painted terracotta sculptures with events from the Passion of Christ. These chapels are arranged on the hilly terrain so that they evoke the actual geography in the Holy Land of the places in which the events occurred. In a time in which pilgrimage to the Holy Land was for the most part impossible (because the territory was under Muslim control), the Sacro Monte offered a substitute or a simulacrum that was thought to be efficacious. In 1516, at the request of the Franciscans of San Vivaldo, Pope Leo X promulgated a brief granting indulgences (time off purgatory) to all who visited the site, which made it a major pilgrimage destination. At this and other Sacri Monti (of which there are several in Lombardy and Piedmont), devotees were to come in penitence, perhaps at night with a lantern, and move from chapel to chapel saying prayers. The architecture of this chapel mimics what was thought in the beginning of the sixteenth century to be the form of the church of the Holy Sepulcher. Entering into the space, just as in Jerusalem, the visitor is force to crouch to enter through a very low opening. The tomb is in such a small part of the chapel that the viewer is forced to stand very close, and only one person may enter at a time, making this an intensely personal experience. The sculpture of Christ in the tomb has been attributed on the basis of style to Agnolo di Polo, a follower of Verrocchio who specialized in terracotta. (The features of Christ mimic those Verrocchio sculpted in such works as the Incredulity of St. Thomas for Orsanmichele.) Entering the space, viewers also pass a sculpture of St. Mary Magdalene, here appropriate as one who came to the tomb and found it empty, and then was the first witness to the Resurrection. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Sacro Monte, San Vivaldo (Montaione)
Citation
Antonio Paolucci, Guida di S. Vivaldo (S. Vivaldo: Frati Minori di S. Vivaldo, 1976); Lorenzo Lorenzi, "Le terrecotte policrome di San Vivaldo," in Una "Gerusalemme" toscana sullo sfondo di due giubilei 1500-1525, ed. Sergio Gensini (Montaione: SISMEL, 2004), 109-20; Rosanna Caterina Proto Pisani, ed., La Gerusalemme di San Vivaldo (Florence : Polistampa, 2006), cat. 18, pp. 93-5.