Stone, Flesh, Spirit: The Entombment of Christ in Late Medieval Burgundy and Champagne

by Donna L. Sadler

Overview

Grief binds the worshipers together in an adagio of sorrow as they encounter the sculptural representation of the Entombment of Christ. Located in funerary chapels, parish churches, cemeteries, and hospitals, these works embody the piety of the later Middle Ages. In this book, Donna Sadler examines the sculptural Entombments from Burgundy and Champagne through a variety of lenses, including performance theory, embodied perception, and the invocation of the absent presence of the Holy Sepulcher. The author demonstrates how the action of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus entombing Christ in the presence of the Marys and John operates in a commemorative and collective fashion: the worshiper enters the realm of the holy and becomes a participant in the biblical event.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004264113
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/15/2015
Series:	Art and Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe Series , #2
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Donna L. Sadler, Ph.D. Indiana University 1984, is a professor of art history at Agnes Scott College. She has published Reading the Reverse Façade of Reims Cathedral: Royalty and Ritual in 13th-century France (2012) and articles on the art of Saint Louis, the court of Claus Sluter, and the dogs on royal tomb effigies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

List of Illustrations xi

Introduction 1

1 The Origins of the Entombment of Christ 7

2 The Entombment of Christ: Echoes of the Performative Piety of the Sculpture at the Chartreuse de Champmol 25

3 The Entombment of Christ: The Absent Presence of the Resurrected Christ and the Holy Sepulcher 72

4 Hocus Pocus: The Entombment of Christ and Medieval Performance 111

5 Conclusion: The Entombments in the Context of Late Medieval Sculpture 149

Bibliography 199

Index 229