Every time I’ve seen Andrea Mantegna’s Lamentation Over the
Dead Christ, I – like many viewers -- have been struck by the seemingly excessive
foreshortening of the body and the over-large size of Christ’s head.
Initially I managed “forgive” these “flaws” on the basis
that it was painted in early days of perspective, and that there is so much
else to admire about the picture. Then I read that Mantegna’s intent was to
cast me, the viewer, in the role of a fourth mourner, kneeling beside the catafalque.
That’s when I realized it was my understanding that was flawed, not Mantegna’s perspective!
This idea would suggest that the painting – which has long
hung at the traditional level in the Brera Art Gallery, in Milan, – might be raised to a higher-than-normal
position, to bring the viewer’s eye to just above the edge of the bier.
And indeed, last December, the Brera did
rehang the piece. But their attempt to explain the unusual composition placed
this iconic painting below standing eye level. This viewpoint was based on the assumption that Mantegna himself kept the canvas hung low so as to kneel before it in prayer.
.jpg)
And they didn’t stop there. They
commissioned movie-maker Ermanno Olmi to design the new installation.
Oh my! What a furor
this has created!
ArtWatch UK writes: “The
Dead Christ is now housed in a special crypt-like dark room, stripped of its
historic frame and visually isolated by spot-lighting, as if now embedded into
a monolithic black wall – and at a height of only 67 cm from the ground”.
Quoted by ArtWatch UK,
Michel Favre-Felix president of ARIPA (Association
Internationale pour le Respect de l’Intégrité du Patrimoine Artistique) said this, “...the painting is now dematerialized and degraded to a
projected image. This new projected-slide effect of the Dead Christ
offends art historian Philippe Daverio who complains of a present resemblance
to the reddish glow of a Pizza furnace. Personally, I am even more struck by
the similarity with a movie screen. Could it be that M. Olmi does not realize
that he is here replicating the very situation, so familiar to him, of a cinema
showing in the dark? Should a row of cinema chairs be put in the present
gallery, the seated spectators would be at the perfect height for looking at
his Dead Christ film.”
I haven’t personally seen the installation, so I won’t
express an opinion about it. But it does occur to me that, 500+ years later, it's difficult for most of us to understand the true spiritual and emotional meaning this image held for
Mantegna and his contemporaries. In fact, it’s commonly believed that the work
was created just after the death of the artist’s sons in the mid-1480s, which would have added a
personal layer of pathos to the
image. Perhaps, then, an “overly-dramatic”
presentation is in order -- to stop us in our tracks and focus our attention on the Lamentation Over the
Dead Christ.
Is this dramatic installation the most effective?
Certainly there are many who don’t think so. And apparently others who do!
