Resurrection stems from resurrectio, the past participle of resurgere, a Latin word that means “to rise or appear again.” It goes back a long way. But myths about resurrected god-men go back even further. The ancient Greeks had Dionysus whose mother was mortal and whose father was Zeus. The Phrygians had Attis who died and was reborn. His cult first appeared around 1250 BCE in what is now Turkey, and later spread to Greece. The Egyptians had Osiris, a god of regeneration and rebirth, whose recorded worship goes back even further to 2400 BCE. The Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible tells how God raised a young boy from the dead through Elijah’s intercession. Resurrection, it seems, is an enduring theme in the myths and sacred texts of western civilization.

For Christians, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is a defining moment that colors our understanding of theological concepts like sin, redemption, sacrifice, reconciliation, atonement, hope, the love of God, and more.The Very Rev. Dean Gary Hall, the head pastor at the Washington National Cathedral, summed up Christian doctrine nicely in his sermon for Easter Sunday when he observed that Jesus’ resurrection liberates believers from “the power of sin” and “the power of death.” http://www.nationalcathedral.org/worship/sermonTexts/grh20140419.shtml?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Easter%20Message%202014%20(1)&utm_cont

Perhaps because it was difficult for medieval artists to depict abstractions like “liberation from sin” without adding snarling dragons to their stained glass, or more likely because they were operating under strict orders from local clerics, they stuck close to the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. The stained glass in most Gothic cathedrals typically illustrates the resurrection entirely on the basis of the four canonical gospels. Deviation from the text is rare, with at least one notable exception.

The Elder Biblical Window at Cologne Cathedral, installed around 1260, contains the outlier. One scene shows Jesus emerging triumphantly from the tomb, wearing a regal red robe, holding a multicolored pennant, and standing over two cowering guards (photo #2, below; click to enlarge). All four gospels mention trembling or frightened guards, but none says a thing about Jesus striking a victorious pose and planting a flag pole in one of the guard’s belly!

This idea of Christ as a victor over death and evil has its origins in the writings of some early Church Fathers who I suspect were influenced by passages in St. Paul’s letters. Apparently, the artistic tradition of “Christus Victor” had come into its own by the thirteenth century and we can see that it continued through the Renaissance and well into the modern period. The nineteenth century Resurrection Window at the Church of the Gesu on Marquette University’s campus in Milwaukee (photos #3 & 4, below) portrays a radiant Christ raising his right hand in blessing as he holds a white banner with a red cross in his left. Look closely at the inscriptions on Jesus’ garment. They appear to be the IHS monogram for Jesus that’s associated with the Society of Jesus, commonly called the Jesuits. Marquette is a Jesuit university.

Let’s turn now to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection by moving on to Chartres Cathedral. It has a large thirteenth century window dedicated to Mary Magdalene, the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection (photo #5, click to enlarge; read bottom to top, L to R).The window contains several scenes from Magdalene’s life based on scripture and stories in Jacob of Voragine’s Golden Legend. As a point of interest, you’ll find small images of a potter and water carrier at the window’s bottom. Potters and water carriers donated the window most likely because Magdalene was their patron. The connection might have come through Luke’s account of a woman, thought to be Magdalene, who used perfume from a jar and poured out her tears to wash Jesus’ feet.

The window’s central roundel (photo #6, below) pictures Magdalene’s role in the Resurrection. It appears to be loosely based on Mark’s and John’s gospels. In the bottom left quadrant, a perplexed Magdalene finds an angel instead of Jesus in the tomb. The angel declares, “He is risen.” In the bottom right quadrant, she appears to reach out to Jesus. He raises his right hand as if to stop her, illustrating the verse in John’s gospel that says, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father….” In the roundel’s top half, Mary goes to the disciples and announces, “I have seen the Lord.”  Mark’s gospel reports that the skeptical disciples “would not believe it.”  Since many details vary in the gospels’ resurrection narratives, it seems significant that they are unanimous in identifying Mary Magdalene, a woman, as the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection.

Photo #7 shows Mary Magdalene with the angel in a scene that appears in the larger Elder Biblical Window at Cologne Cathedral. It illustrates either the angel’s proclamation in Mark, “He has Risen,” or the question in Luke, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

We’ll end today’s post with two windows in the U.S. The Resurrection Window (photo #9, below) at Denver’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is apparently based on Matthew’s gospel where Mary Magdalene, with long curly hair, and “the other Mary,” possibly James’ mother wearing a blue cloak in the image, visited the tomb at dawn as an angel rolled away the boulder from the entrance. An earthquake then caused the guards to tremble and “become like dead men.” The window dates, I think, to the early twentieth century.

The last window (photo #11) is found at Princeton Chapel. Executed in rich blues and reds that call to mind Chartres Cathedral’s vibrant thirteenth century glass, this resurrection window offers an imaginative scene in which the risen Christ presents the crucifixion wounds in his hands and feet for all to see, as Mary his mother, and John, the disciple he loved, stand on either side. It is a mid to late twentieth century composition.

Mike Klug, mikejklug@aol.com, 4/20/14

If iconography is the art of writing with images, then the pedestals beneath statues are one important means by which medieval artists formed iconographic sentences and paragraphs for us to “read.” Usually no names were inscribed on statues to help identify them. Instead, the sculptors used something familiar that we “attribute” to the person as a clue to his or her identity.  The attributes of some saints–as with Peter and the Keys to the Kingdom–make them easy to identify. Others are harder to recognize through their attributes or their attributes have been broken off or lost, and that’s where the sculpted pedestals step in to help. Today, we’ll look at some statues and pedestals at Reims Cathedrals in France and the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. It’s good to keep in mind that the artists who worked on cathedrals and churches in North America found inspiration in the sculpture adorning Europe’s Gothic cathedrals and, as you’ll see, they carried forward the medieval tradition of using pedestals as subtext with some great results.

Reims (or Rheims) Cathedral is located seventy-seven miles east of Paris in the heart of France’s Champagne region. The prosperity of Champagne’s vineyards enabled Reims’ citizens to build an outstanding Gothic cathedral with fine sculpture and stained glass. But much of its original sculpture was damaged or destroyed by German shelling in World War I (photo #1, below). Reportedly, the building became a target in that devastating conflagration partly because it held symbolic value as the traditional coronation site for French monarchs. Recall that Joan of Arc and her army accompanied Charles VII to Reims in 1429 to be crowned King of all France. When I visited Reims in 2010, extensive restoration work was underway in advance of the cathedral’s 800^th anniversary in 2011.

Among the many pieces of statuary restored or replaced after World War I are the sets of figures that flank the cathedrals main doorways. Photo #2 shows six Biblical figures that stand near one of the cathedral’s portals. I can identify three of the six with certainty by using their main attributes.

John the Baptist stands second from left. Medieval artists often depicted him wearing rough garments and holding a “Lamb of God” medallion. Moses stands fourth from left. He holds one of the tablets of the law and a tall staff with a snake atop. The staff and snake refer to the book of Numbers where Moses placed a bronze serpent atop a standard so “that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.”  The figure to the right of Moses is that of Abraham. He’s identified by the proximity of his son Isaac who stands with him. It’s likely that the figure on the far left is Simeon holding infant Jesus.

The pedestals beneath Moses and Abraham add the “footnotes” to their stories. Click on photo #2 for a close look. You’ll see a bull beneath Moses feet to suggest the incident in the book of Exodus where the ancient Israelites worshiped a golden calf. Similarly, the sculptors placed a ram beneath Abraham’s feet to recall the passage in Genesis that describes Abraham finding a ram tangled in a bush, and sacrificing it instead of his son.

Sculptors at Washington’s National Cathedral, constructed between 1907 and 1990, carved statues and pedestals in much the same way. A statue of Joan of Arc (photo #3) portrays her looking heavenward as she probably did before her English captors burned her at the stake in 1430.

In the elaborate pedestal, sculptors carved an image of the façade of Reims Cathedral, the coronation church where Joan crowned Charles VII King of France. On closer inspection (photo #4), you’ll also see that the pedestal contains a crown and fleurs-de-lis, emblems of the French monarchy. Joan’s shield at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans displays the royal emblems too (photo #5).

St. Peter’s statue and pedestal on the National Cathedral’s west exterior also merit a close look (photo #6). Sculptor Frederick Hart departed from a traditional representation of Peter as the first Bishop of Rome holding the Keys to the Kingdom and instead shows the saint holding a fish net, an attribute that reminds us of Peter’s original occupation as a fisherman.

The pedestal (photo #7) amplifies Peter’s story. Heraldic Keys of the Kingdom signify his leadership status in the early church, and an inverted cross alludes to his martyrdom and Peter’s legendary request to be crucified upside down.

Mike Klug, mikejklug@aol.com, 4/15/14