Giuseppe Sanmartino “Christ lying under the Shroud” ☦

What do alchemy and marble have in common? The subject of this sculpture piece has a lot to say about them both. For many centuries, it was thought that alchemy imposed magical elements into the marble so that the sculptor working on a subject could forge the marble in any way he desired. According to an enthralling legend, the famous alchemist Raimondo di Sangro taught a clandestine method of transfiguring cloth into sculpted marble; this ‘marbilfication’ process is what made many sculptures are famous for their work. Over the centuries, the legend died out, and the result was honest and genuine work of a skilled craftsman. Perhaps the most famous extraction from this legendary process was the ‘Veiled Christ’ by Giuseppe Sanmartino.

Here, we have Christ lying in state. His features have been melted by death, but his emotions are preserved. Sanmartino has carefully braised the Christ with conviction and integrity; even lying in death, Christ is divine and appears to be ready to be awakened, despite intense suffering and punishment that is fervently embroidered on the veil itself. The lifeless body is encapsulated by intense detail and honor; every fold and crease that the veil provides is an illustrious recital of purpose and conviction; something profound is occurring, even while the body sleeps under the pall of death. There is also a tapestry of preciosity in the face; the bulging vein on the forehead gives rise to the thesis of resurrection and eternity. The bloated wounds on the hands and feet are a divine evocation to the viewer. This preservation of affliction is the martyrdom of humanity itself, with a bright and refulgent promise of salvation and ageless joy.

The collected relics of the Passion are enshrined near his feet. This is also a splendid reminder of the regulated ordeal of death into eternal life of the believer, and the inescapable doom and vanquishment of the unbeliever. Humanity is in full triumph. The veil itself is a journey and an extraordinary story of something both catastrophic and promising. Miracles and blessings entice each wave and fold of the veil. The whole of the garment is enshrined with the secrets of life and death, only to be revealed at the time of the end. There is also the undented pyre on which the Christ sleeps. There is no indication of a struggle; the body has not sunk into it, nor has it been flattened from its sides. Sanmartino has not sculpted a coincidence here; this is symbolic of the might of Christ and his Kingdom. This is an earthly bed that is borrowed for the miraculous occasion. Even the tassels of the ‘softened’ pillow on which the head is resting do not suggest a disturbance; instead, they have been fed with a paradisiacal exhortation of a temporary moment of hermetical rumination. The drama is far from exaggeration; on the contrary, everything is amalgamated to color the drama of the subject. The skill of the crafted marble can be seen with the impeccable ferocity because of the hammer and chisel; these are the tools of the passion for Sanmartino to create the majestic and immobilized Christ. While sleep and death are recurrent, they are not equal. There is a gallant awakening for the viewer when it is glared at long enough. The interpretation of this level of the spectrum is the reward of the witnesses. 

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