The Virgin Swooning and the Three Maries at the Tomb of Christ by Puccio di Simone

The Virgin Swooning and the Three Maries at the Tomb of Christ 1348 - 1352

gouache

water colours

possibly oil pastel

handmade artwork painting

oil painting

underpainting

painting painterly

watercolour bleed

watercolour illustration

watercolor

"The Virgin Swooning and the Three Maries at the Tomb of Christ" is a tempera painting on poplar wood created by Puccio di Simone between 1348 and 1352. The painting depicts the moment when Mary, the mother of Jesus, is overcome with grief as she witnesses the empty tomb of her son. Three other women, the Maries, are also present, along with a figure believed to be Joseph of Arimathea. The painting showcases the emotional intensity of the scene and di Simone's mastery of detail in the figures and the landscape. This artwork is a prime example of 14th-century Italian art and demonstrates di Simone's signature style of depicting emotive scenes with a focus on realistic detail. The painting, now housed at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, offers a powerful visual representation of a key moment in Christian belief.

Comments

statensmuseumforkunst about 1 year ago

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This landscape looks more like a set piece from a theatre than a natural landscape. The sky has been replaced by a gold background. Around 1350 we see an emerging interest in the physiognomy of the human body and in nature. However, artists are not yet preoccupied with depicting landscapes in full detail as they might look in real life. That particular trend does not have its breakthrough in art until around 1600. In this work nature primarily serves a symbolic function. We can read the trees and flowers as symbols of the resurrection of Christ and of how life continues after death. These trees do, in fact, reach all the way up to the sky. Nature tells us more than the grieving figures in the painting can take in at the moment, but Christian observers of the depiction will know that something else will follow grief. Christ will be resurrected, and there will be a life after death in the golden Paradise.