The Women at the Tomb

Page 50 in the St Albans Psalter illustrates the Holy Women at the Tomb as narrated in Matthew (28:1–8) and Luke (24:1–10). It was produced sometime between 1123 and 1143 in St Albans Abbey, a very important centre for English Christianity with a scriptorium which produced many precious medieval manuscripts. It is presently in the church of St Godehard in Hildesheim, northwestern Germany. The manuscript is prefaced by thirty-seven lavish, full-scale miniatures illustrating the Life of Christ.

The miniature is framed by an elaborate decorative pattern and its narrative follows a sequence from left to right—the direction in which Western people learn to read and write. Hence, three haloed women are depicted standing to the left with their heads facing an angel, at far right, sitting on a rectangular stone. The angel reciprocates the gaze of the women, with his outspread right wing serving as a bridging visual link between the two groups.

The angel points beyond the composition with his right index finger, probably to Christ’s empty tomb. This laconic gesture holds information of tremendous importance for the women who have come to visit the tomb and, consequently, for the viewers who now witness the episode on the illuminated page: that Christ has risen and departed.

Underneath the angel’s dangling, bare feet, at the bottom right-hand corner, four soldiers with shields and swords are recumbent in various positions. The narrative says that the guards ‘became as dead men’ (Matthew 28:4). While their number varies in different depictions of the scene, the fact that they are typically asleep (with one exception here) shows them both physically and spiritually oblivious to what has happened.

Matthew’s and Luke’s narratives both mention the women who visited Christ’s tomb early in the morning to anoint His body with spices. This is indicated here by the jar seen in the hands of the woman standing to the far left. Matthew mentions two women, which is the number usually depicted in the scene of the ‘All Hail’ (elsewhere in this exhibition); Luke mentions three women by name, the number usually depicted in this scene.

While details differ, both narratives mention the removal of the stone from the entrance to Christ’s tomb and an angel informing the women that Christ had risen, the latter information conveyed here by the angel simply yet powerfully pointing them to an empty space.  

References

Collins, Kristen, Peter Kidd, and Nancy K. Turner. 2013. The St Albans Psalter: Painting and Prayer in Medieval England (Los Angeles: J Paul Getty Museum)

In this seventeenth-century work, Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch presents a seemingly innocent scene with three women and a dog. The room’s elaborate setting, the furniture, and the ladies’ attire are all indicative of wealth.

At the centre of the scene a seated woman, dressed in a blue velvet dress trimmed with white fur, bends over a desk and is absorbed in writing a note. Another stands to the left, looking directly at the viewer, engaging the painting’s audience and inviting them to admire her luxurious red and white dress. The shimmering white satin of the lower part of her dress is captivating and is both a distraction from and a contrast to the area at the right of the composition, which is rather dark.

There, from the shadows, a third female figure emerges, bending forward in an attempt to read the note. The little dog on the chair lifting its head towards the desk mirrors the curiosity of the inquisitive female.   

The whiteness of the satin and the dog make the viewer feel at ease; superficially, it all appears innocent—but is it? Looking over someone’s shoulder and trying to find out things that are not one’s business is the opposite of innocent, especially as it is likely to turn to loose talk. Indeed, Christian teaching across many centuries places both gossipers and eavesdroppers in hell, often punished by snakes biting their mouths and ears respectively. This is because such acts were often indicative of idleness (see Luke 24:11), with potentially catastrophic consequences for people’s lives and reputations within small communities. The young girl spying on the hand-written note could very well be compared with an eavesdropper, who will proceed to repeat the content of the note to others—at best as silly talk; at worst as malicious gossip.

It is on the trustworthiness of the testimony of women, which history has so readily and so frequently suspected, that Matthew’s and Luke’s resurrection accounts will now turn.

References

Gaiger, Jason. 2012. ‘Meaning and Interpretation: Dutch Painting of the Golden Age’, in Art and Visual Culture 1600–1850, ed. by Emma Barker (London: Tate Publishing), pp. 61–99

Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr, with contributions by Alison McNeil Kettering et al. 2004. Gerard ter Borch (New York: American Federation of Arts)

This wall painting illustrates the ‘All Hail of the Myrrh-Bearers’, as described in Matthew 28:9–10, where Christ met and greeted ‘Mary Magdalene and the other Mary’ (v.1) as they returned from visiting His empty tomb. The work is part of the monumental decoration depicted on the south wall of the sanctuary in the church of Saint Panteleemon, in the village of Zymvragou, prefecture of Chania, western Crete—built and decorated when the island was under Venetian rule.

Christ is placed in the middle of the scene, flanked in the background by two mountains and in the foreground by two haloed women kneeling among plants. He is depicted full-length, turned to the left of the composition and extending His right hand in blessing towards the kneeling woman on this side. He holds a closed scroll in His left hand, indicating his authority and power. Both His hands bear a white mark from the nails of the crucifixion. As is typical in Christian art, Christ’s halo includes a cross, as a visual reference to His death. The kneeling women extend their covered hands towards Christ, as is customary when in the presence of the divine.

The scene and Christ are identified in white majuscule Greek letters, placed at the top middle, to the left and right of Christ’s halo:

ΤΟΧΑΙ / ΡΕΤΩΝΜΥΡΟΦΟΡΩΝ (To Chaire tōn Myrophorōn; the All Hail of the Myrrh- Bearers)

ΙC / ΧC (abbreviation for Jesus Christ, Ι(ΗCΟΥ)C Χ(ΡΙCΤΟ)C).

The scene is specific to Matthew’s Gospel, and (as the first appearance of the risen Christ in that Gospel) has the same momentousness as the appearance to Mary Magdalene in John 20:11–18. It is often depicted as separate scene within the Byzantine iconographic programme, known as the Chairete (‘All Hail’) after the greeting Christ extended to the women.

The early Christian theologian Peter Chrysologus (Greek: Πέτρος ὁ Χρυσολόγος) writes of this episode:

He does not wait to be recognized. He does not demand to be understood. He does not allow himself to be questioned. Rather, he extends this greeting immediately, enthusiastically. He did this because the force of his love overcomes and surpasses all. Furthermore, by doing so Christ himself greets the church.… This greeting itself evidently shows that the full figure of the church abides in these women. They are contrasted with those disciples whom Christ scolds who were wavering over the resurrection (Sermons 75.2).

References

Chrysologus, Peter. 1953. Collectio sermonum, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 24a (Turnhout: Brepols), pp.465–66

Lymberopoulou, Angeliki, Lynne Harrison, and Janet Ambers. 2011. ‘The Noli Me Tangere icon at the British Museum: Vision, message and reality’, in Images of the Byzantine World: Visions, Messages and Meanings. Studies presented to Leslie Brubaker, ed. by Angeliki Lymberopoulou (Farnham: Ashgate), pp. 185–214