During the Renaissance, biblical episodes from the life of Christ were the artistic mainstay for a majority of artists. This exhibition focuses on the three major stages of Christ’s life: his incarnation, in the form of the Nativity; his Crucifixion; and finally the Resurrection. Through fifty three drawings and prints from the British Museum, we explore the way that artists differently envisioned these key moments of Christ’s life and how they prepared their paintings and frescoes on these themes.
Beginning in the Renaissance and ending in the 18th century these skilled works chart the continuity and differences in the narrative approach, while also providing a broad overview of the functions, techniques and major artistic trends of the period.
The variety of subject matter is incredibly limited.
You know, the Bible is kind of a done deal.
You're not going to get any new stories to work with.
So your challenge is ways to interpret them
and make them meaningful in fresh ways.
And here, you know, this crucifixion
is all about the emotional impact of what we're seeing.
We've got the cross rotated from a frontal view to the side.
We've got the incision on Christ's side actually bleeding.
We've got this really ferocious kind of movement
in terms of the environment,
the wind whipping up all of the fantastic fabric and drapery.
We've got the two Marys, Mary Magdalene
and the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross,
as they usually are.
But instead of looking up at Christ,
they've turned around, they've been astonished
by the fact that God himself has actually appeared
out of grief at his son's own crucifixion,
which isn't something that we see
in a lot of these other images.
So we've got these examples of Italian artists
working with these set stories,
but taking a bit of leeway with how they're interpreting it.
