The dead Christ attended by angels is a devotional type with four centuries of Western practice behind it by the date of this entry. The angels in it are functionaries rather than characters: unnamed, unranked, present to hold and to mourn, and above all present as the sign that the scene is a sacred image and not simply a body.
The catalogue dates the work to 1864 and gives Édouard Manet, a French painter, with the style term Realism. It measures 179.4 x 149.9 cm — large, and close to square by the record's numbers — and the measured colour family is neutral.
Realism as a style term names a commitment to observed appearance, and it sits in visible tension with the presence of angels, who cannot be observed. That tension is the interest of this entry within a catalogue of angels: everything else in the picture can be painted from a model, and the two figures that define the type cannot. The record keeps both facts, the style and the title, without reconciling them. The recorded location is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Édouard Manet (UK: , US: ; French: [edwaʁ manɛ]; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism
French painter, printmaker, and draftsman, 1832-1883
description: painting by Édouard Manet; inception: 1864-01-01; dimensions: 179.4 × 149.9 cm; collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Dead Christ with Angels is an 1864 oil painting by French painter Édouard Manet. The painting depicts the biblical story (John 20:12) of Mary Magdalene entering the tomb of Jesus and seeing two angels but finding Jesus's body missing. I
Authoritative source for this work (moma.org).
Authoritative source for this work (dx.doi.org).
Authoritative source for this work (doi.org).
artist: Edouard Manet; date: 1864; medium: Oil on canvas; dimensions: 70 5/8 x 59 in. (179.4 x 149.9 cm); department: European Paintings; credit: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929; on view: Gallery 810
High-resolution image of the work, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art open data: Edouard Manet; 1864; Oil on canvas; 29.100.51
Louie Drehmer, Curator, Angel Oil Paintings
Louie curates Angel Oil Paintings. The sources available for this entry are listed above.
The Dead Christ with Angels is an oil painting by Edouard Manet, 1864, held at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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