“Lament over the Dead Christ”, Giovanni Bellini 1473-6, Vatican Museums.
In all four gospels, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. The man on the left who holds the dead body upright must be Joseph. In the Gospel of John, Nicodemus brought spices and anointed the body of Jesus before his burial. In this painting we see him holding the container. A woman, whom we assume to be Mary Magdalene, holds Jesus’ hand and gazes upon the wound left by the nail. It looks like she is touching or even anointing the wound. But in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, it was not until the first day of the week that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb intending to anoint the body. She didn’t do so, because the tomb was empty. In the Gospels of Matthew and John there is no mention of her anointing Jesus at all. But to try to make this image fit the gospel narratives is to misunderstand this work. It a work of devotion which presents these three gospel characters, as each in a uniquely personal way laments the suffering and death of Jesus. Of course, Bellini and his contemporaries identified Mary Magdalene as the woman who was a sinner, who had anointed Jesus at Bethany, some time before his death. Perhaps here she represents the repentant sinner contemplating how Jesus suffered for her sake. The wound we can see most clearly is in his side. A mixture of blood and water flows from it, as recounted in John’s Gospel (Jn19:34). This is understood to symbolise the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. In fact, Bellini painted the lamentation of Christ more than any other scene. Usually the dead body is supported by his mother and St John or by angels with the focus on lamentation. Here the focus is on the on the sacraments and anointing. The dead body of Christ is surrounded by the kernel of a living body of disciples, who will draw life from the sacraments symbolised by the the flow of blood and water.
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