Tapijt met de graflegging van Christus en prefiguraties in een kerk te La Chaise-Dieu c. 1868 - 1873

Here we have Hippolyte Malègue's drawing of a tapestry depicting the entombment of Christ within a church, rendered with graphite or a similar medium, which results in a rather intricate composition. The visual experience is dominated by a dense network of lines and figures, which creates a tapestry-like effect that interweaves different moments in time and space. Malègue’s structural organization of the drawing offers a fascinating interplay between the foreground, where the entombment is staged, and the background, which is rich with prefigurative scenes. The tapestry-like quality of the work dissolves the sense of spatial depth. Instead, different scenes coalesce into a unified, almost flattened field. This flattening is not merely a technical issue but serves to collapse distinct historical moments into a single plane of signification. Consider how the drawing challenges traditional notions of narrative and representation, inviting us to contemplate the complex web of signs and symbols which shape our understanding of religious history and artistic tradition. In essence, it destabilizes the distinction between past and present.