19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 11 - Christ in Limbo

Title: Christ in Limbo
Artist: Paul Cézanne
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 170 x 97 cm
Date: c. 1867
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

19 IMAGES FROM THE 19th CENTURY: PART 11

Christ’s Descent into Hell, or Descent into Limbo, is a legend not depicted in any of the canonical Gospels. One of the first written references can be found in the Apocryphal text, the Gospel of Nicodemus. Before his bodily Resurrection, Jesus descended into Hell and led the just, the patriarchs, the prophets of the Old Testament and Adam and Eve, into the light. Later, a clarity was introduced that they had not been in Hell at all, but in the bordering region, Limbo (from the Latin word limbus, a hem); it was taught that because they lived and died before the Christ's self-sacrifice for peoples redemption, they were put in the lower place until such time when Jesus could liberate them. the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "...Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.”

During the 1860s, Cézanne turned his hand to murals to decorate the family home, Jas de Bouffan, near Aix-en-Provence. As indicated in documents from the period, this fragment, Christ in Limbo, was part of a much larger composition. Another work in the Musée d'Orsay, La Madeleine, was also part of it, although scholars attest there is no aesthetic reason to link the two. In Cézanne’s painting of Christ's descent into Limbo, the dwelling place between death and resurrection, the artist depicts the place with a careful use of color against a black background. The reds and peaches, combined with the loose brushstrokes. create a vigorous impasto intercepting light and portray a scene glimpsed through shimmering waves of heat. The souls of the Just in the Old Testament who await Redemption kneel before the Redeemer. In fact, the characters in the bottom left hand corner are probably Adam and Eve.

Paul Cézanne (January 1839 – October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. The line attributed to both Matisse and Picasso that Cézanne "is the father of us all" cannot be easily dismissed. Cézanne's work demonstrates a mastery of design, color, tone, composition and draftsmanship. His often sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. During his Dark Period in Paris, 1861–1870, Cézanne was given to depression, and his works of this period are characterized by dark colors and the heavy use of black. They differ sharply from his earlier watercolors and sketches at the École Spéciale de dessin at Aix-en-Provence in 1859, and the violence of expression is in contrast to his subsequent works.

Inferno 29 - Mohammed

Title: Inferno 29 - Mohammed

Artist: Salvador Dali

Medium: Block print

Size: 33 x 26 cm

Date: 1960

Location: Book illustration

Dante Alighieri (c.1265, Florence – September 14, 1321, Ravenna), commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. In Italy he is known as il Sommo Poeta (the Supreme Poet) or just il Poeta. His Divine Comedy, originally called Commedia by the author and later nicknamed Divina by Boccaccio, is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. Written between 1308 and Dante’s death in 1321, the poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. Further, it helped establish the Tuscan dialect as the Italian standard.

The encounter with Mohammed takes place in the eight circle of Hell, the circle of fraud. Mohammed is punished in the ninth ditch of this circle, among the sowers of religious, political and familial discord who are 'split', or mutilated, by a devil's sword. As Mohammed explains to Dante, the devil is standing somewhere in the background at a fixed point of the circular ditch, thrusting with his sword at the damned who have to pass in front of him. The wounds which they receive heal while the damned proceed on their way, only to be stricken again when the damned have to face the devil again. Mohammed explains the general arrangement of the punishment of the place, and suggests also a specific sense of this punishment, by associating a bodily 'splitting' with the 'splitting' of community. Unlike other sinners in this canto, Mohammed does not make any remarks about his earlier life and does not relate any specific deed for which he is punished. It has caused some consternation that Dante places Mohammed at this specific place in Hell, and not in the sixth circle with the heretics and heresiarchs in their red-hot glowing tombs. But some commentators have pointed out that this punishment in a place deeper in hell implies a more severe condemnation. And this more severe condemnation does not imply an exculpation from the less grave sin of heresy, because according to the general rule each soul is punished at the place of his (or her) gravest sin.

To celebrate Dante’s 700th birthday, Salvador Dali was commissioned by the Italian government in 1951 to create a set of illustrations for the Divine Comedy. However, the reception of Dali's project in Italy was extremely negative, since it did not seem appropriate for a Spanish (rather than Italian) painter, much less an irreverent Surrealist and sometime fascist sympathizer, to illustrate a commemorative edition of the greatest Italian poet's masterpiece to be published by the State Press. Regardless, Dali produced a masterpiece of his own, and the set of watercolors with their range of artistic styles demonstrates that Dali was one of the greatest artists of the century. The series consists of 100 illustrations - one print for each canto plus one cover image, and were produced as engravings in the years 1959 to 1963 in Paris, commissioned by Joseph Foret. Woodcut experts Raymond Jacquet and Jean Taricco worked for many years under Dali’s guidance to transfer his visions to the medium. Several blocks (frequently referred to as “wood” blocks, although they were actually a resin-based matrix) - one for each color – had to be made for each image, and more than 3,000 blocks were necessary to complete the whole engraving process.

Christ in Limbo

Title: Christ in Limbo

Artist: Fra Angelico

Medium: Fresco

Size: 183 x 166 cm

Date: c. 1450

Location: Florence, Cloister, cell 31, Museo di San Marco.

Christ’s Descent into Hell, or Descent into Limbo, is a legend not depicted in any of the canonical Gospels. One of the first written references can be found in the Apocryphal text, the Gospel of Nicodemus. Before his bodily Resurrection, Jesus descended into Hell and led the just, the patriarchs, the prophets of the Old Testament and Adam and Eve, into the light. Later, a clarity was introduced that they had not been in Hell at all, but in the bordering region, Limbo (from the Latin word limbus, a hem); it was taught that because they lived and died before the Christ's self-sacrifice for peoples redemption, they were put in the lower place until such time when Jesus could liberate them.

In ‘Christ in Limbo’, Christ, as Conqueror, enters through the gate, which has fallen flat at His approach, beneath it Lucifer lies crushed, the impersonation of death and sin. The Saviour stretches forth His hand to Abraham, the father of the faithful, foremost among the vast multitude of "spirits in prison," who have so long awaited His coming. Among these can be seen Adam and Eve. The Italian critics look upon it as a marvelous rendering of the well-known passage in the Inferno (Canto IV, 54 et seq).

Fra Angelico (c. 1395 – February 18, 1455), was a Florentine painter as well as a Dominican friar, having entered a Dominican convent in Fiesole in 1418. He rose from obscure beginnings as a journeyman illuminator to the renown of an artist whose last major commissions were monumental fresco cycles in St Peter’s and the Vatican Palace, Rome. Within his lifetime or shortly thereafter he was also called Il Beato (the Blessed), in reference to his skills in painting religious subjects. In 1982 Pope John Paul II conferred beatification, in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making this title official.

Descent into Hell

Title: Descent into Hell

Artist: Nicholas Roerich

Medium: Tempera on canvas

Size: 61 x 50 cm

Date: 1933

Location: State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow.

The Harrowing of Hell is a doctrine in Christian theology referenced in the Apostles' Creed, which states that Jesus "descended into Hell". For example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead" presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.”

Here, in the place of devils, Roerich uses deep sea angler fish, a recently discovered demonic denizen of the deep. This change adds further to the sensation hat Christ is descending into some alien world, familiar yet strange, as the color shifts between hot orange and cold blue tones. Roerich depicts Christ as he is most alone, before he has reached the souls who had passed before him and becomes their way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ’s descent into hell entails experiencing the fullness of alienation, sin and death, which he then absorbs, transfigures, and defeats through the Resurrection.

Nicholas Roerich, (October 9, 1874 - December 13, 1947) also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (alternative transliteration), was a Russian painter, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, public figure. He created about 7000 paintings (many of them are exhibited in well-known museums of the world) and about 30 literary works. Roerich was an initiator of International Pact for protection of artistic and academic institutions and historical sites, and a founder of international movement for culture defense. Roerich earned several nominations for the Nobel Prize for his work to preserve cultural artifacts.

The Fall of the Damned

Title: The Fall of the Damned

Artist: Dieric Bouts, the Elder

Medium: Oil on wood

Size: 115 x 69.5 cm

Date: 1450

Location: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille.

Two paintings, one representing Hell and the other Paradise, were long believed to be part of a triptych of the Last Judgment by Bouts, which has unfortunately not survived. However, recent research has shown that this is not the case, and The Fall of the Damned was created as a work to stand in its own right. If you look at the faces on some of the demons you'll see them staring back, briefly pausing the torment in order to gaze back with gleeful bravado at whoever might be watching. Not only was the depiction of Hell and the Last Judgment approved from the theological point of view of frightening the flock of Christ back to the path of righteousness, it also allowed artists an unusual kind of freedom to paint their most horrific imaginings.

The Christian doctrine of hell derives from the teaching of the New Testament. For example, as described in Matthew 13:49-50: “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Little else is said about the nature of Hell in the New Testament which allows for a wide range of interpretations. Christian thought ranges from the standard medieval depiction preferred by Bouts and his contemporaries, to the more modern view expressed where Hell is not so much a place where God imprisons man, as a place where man, by misusing his free will, chooses to imprison himself. As such, the wicked are not deprived of the love of God, but by their own choice they experience as suffering what the saints experience as joy. The love of God becomes an intolerable torment for those who have not acquired it within themselves.

Dieric Bouts, also spelled Dirk, Dierick and Dirck (born circa 1410/1420, died 1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter. Very little is actually known about Bouts' early life, but he was greatly influenced by Jan van Eyck and by Rogier van der Weyden, under whom he may have studied. He is documented in Leuven in 1457 and worked there until his death in 1475