The collaboration between Don Alessio Fucile, an art expert, and the Shalom blog continues. Don Alessio will guide us in exploring the most important moments of the liturgical year through beautiful works of art that, besides inspiring wonder at their splendor, can help us better understand Sacred Scripture and Jesus’ message.
Today Don Alessio presents Piero della Francesca’s “The Resurrection of Christ,” which can be admired at the Civic Museum of Sansepolcro on Easter Sunday.
Welcome back. Today I am presenting Piero della Francesca’s “The Resurrection of Christ,” painted between 1467 and 1468 and now housed in the Civic Museum of Sansepolcro.
The city’s symbolism
In the patrons’ intentions, the painting served as the city’s coat of arms, as the city takes its name from Jesus’ tomb and the relics brought there from the Holy Land by the legendary pilgrims Egidio and Arcano. Before making important decisions for the city, the administrators prayed before this image, asking the Lord to guide them in their choices.
The iconographic composition, symbolism, and colors
The painter was constrained by a prescribed iconographic scheme. This explains the perfect centrality and frontality of the risen Christ, the geometric simplification of the sarcophagus, the symmetrical placement of the trees in the background and the soldiers in front. Piero imagines two viewpoints: one very low, encompassing the sarcophagus and the group of sleepers, and another higher one that focuses on the face and torso of the Risen Christ. The result is powerful: the figures in the foreground emerge sculpturally, thereby emphasizing the imposing presence of Christ, victor over death and the bulwark of the city that chose him as its protector. Jesus, perfectly centered, emerges majestically from the tomb, firmly holding in his hand the banner of the Resurrection, which represents his victory over death. With the power of a warrior triumphing after a fight to the death, as attested by his suffering face, he asserts himself with complete determination, resting his left foot forcefully on the tomb. He stands at the apex of a pyramid culminating in his halo. He wears a pink robe, symbolizing his sovereignty over the whole earth. The colors of his body and tunic stand out against the dark background of the Tuscan landscape, which, through its monochromatic character, further highlights the imposing figure of Christ.
The tomb forms the backdrop for the sleeping guards and separates the earthly sphere from the divine one. The guard dressed in brown, to Christ’s right, identified as the artist’s self-portrait, rests his head on the banner of the Resurrection. This attitude represents humanity’s hope in the Resurrection, since «if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile».
The metaphor of the spring dawn
The scene is set in the first light of a spring dawn, when the sky changes from gray to blue and the clouds turn pink, the same pink that illuminates the Savior’s mantle, so that His rising from the tomb becomes a metaphor for the rising sun. Christ, victor over darkness, renews all things; therefore nature, like the human condition, changes its skin, and the trees, still bare and stiff with winter frost on the left, burst into leafy green on the right. The Resurrection of Christ gives new life.
Piero della Francesca, a mathematician and geometrician, creates a stunning perspective. The fresco is designed so that the guards are at the viewer’s eye level and Christ is seen from below. The perspective of the trees gives the impression that Christ is approaching the viewer, as if entering their space, their life, to bring the hope of the Resurrection. Even Jesus’ penetrating gaze seems intent on entering your soul and, with His weary face, seems to say: «I told you that I would rise again on the third day; what are you waiting for to believe and rejoice?».
Standing before the painting, you may ask yourself: am I like the guards who sleep, or do I open my eyes to Him? Do I embrace the hope of the Resurrection? Do I allow His loving gaze to give me the true happiness that comes from knowing that He is with me «every day until the end of the world»?
The work was greatly admired by English travelers, who held the artist in deep veneration. During the Second World War, the presence of the fresco protected the entire area from destruction. The Allied troops had been ordered to bomb the town. However, the English captain Clark, remembering that the fresco was in the town, ordered the bombing to be halted. Even a work of art can perform miracles!
