Wednesday 12 September 2007

Notes from Turin


In the museum based at Palazzo Madama there's a wooden sculpture on display called "Com-pianto su Christo Morto" ("Lamentation over the Dead Christ"). It's apparently a fairly standard subject in religious art, and an example of which (unfortunately not the one in Palazzo Madama) is shown here.

The one in Palazzo Madama is worth mentioning because the whole scene is intact, except that whatever it was Christ was lying on is missing. Instead, Jesus is held aloft by a single metal prop, painted an inconspicuous grey. The result of which is that it looks like Our Lord and Saviour is doing a levitating magic trick which, judging by the expressions of those around Him, isn't going down too well.

2 comments:

JamesHutchinson said...

Could Jesus levitate? Was that one of his tricks? I know the water into wine, the loaves and fishes, the coming back to life... I'm sure there's more.

Unknown said...

I'm sure that anyone who could turn water into wine and walk on it as well could levitate.