The ''Christ between Four Angels and the Instruments of the Passion'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master

Vittore Carpaccio Vittore Carpaccio ( UK: /kɑːrˈpætʃ(i)oʊ/, US: /-ˈpɑːtʃ-/, Italian: itˈtoːre karˈpattʃo c. 1460/66 – 1525/26) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school who studied under Gentile Bellini. Carpaccio was largely influence ...

, executed in 1496 and now housed in the Civici musei e gallerie di storia e arte of

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The work was painted for the church of St. Peter Martyr of Udine. It was acquired by the Austrians after the Napoleonic Wars, and assigned to the Hofmuseum in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1838. It was given back to Italy in 1919.

Description

The work is signed and dated ''VICTORIS CHARPATJO / VENETI OPVS / 1496'' on a

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fe ...

attached to the basement. It is contemporary of Carpaccio's cycle of the

Legend of Saint Ursula The ''Legend of Saint Ursula'' (Italian: ''Storie di sant'Orsola'') is a series of large wall-paintings on canvas by the Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio, commissioned by the Loredan family and originally created for the Scuol ...

and shows some influences of

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his fath ...

. It depicts Christ standing on a double basement, keeping the Cross. Behind him is a

damask Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...

cloth held by two angels and, at the sides, a landscape inspired to the

Venetian hills Venetian Hills is an official neighborhood in southwest Atlanta, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its 2010 population was 3,790. It is bordered: * on the north by Cascade Avenue/Road SW, Avon Avenue SW, and the Bush Mountain neighborhood * on the ...

; the castle on the right is similar to that of Udine. In the foreground are four angels with the

Instruments of the Passion Arma Christi ("weapons of Christ"), or the Instruments of the Passion, are the objects associated with the Passion of Jesus Christ in Christian symbolism and art. They are seen as arms in the sense of heraldry, and also as the weapons Chris ...

: from the left, the

Holy Lance The Holy Lance, also known as the Lance of Longinus (named after Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear, is the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross during his crucifixion. Biblical references The l ...

, the nails from the cross, the sticks of the

Flagellation Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

and the

Holy Sponge The Holy Sponge is one of the Instruments of the Passion of Jesus. It was dipped in vinegar (; in some translations sour wine), most likely posca, a regular beverage of Roman soldiers, and offered to Jesus to drink from during the Crucifixion, ac ...

. On the cross is the

Crown of Thorns According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or grc, ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos, label=none) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the inst ...

and the inscription "INRI". Blood rays spring up from Christ's wounds, ending in the

Holy Chalice The Holy Chalice, also known as the Holy Grail, is in Christian tradition the vessel that Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve wine. The Synoptic Gospels refer to Jesus sharing a cup of wine with the Apostles, saying it was the covenant in h ...

and turning themselves into the

sacramental bread Sacramental bread, also called Communion bread, Eucharistic bread, the Lamb or simply the host ( la, hostia, lit=sacrificial victim), is the bread used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist. Along with sacramental wine, it is one of two elemen ...

. The sacrifice of Christ is also alluded to by the deer which is being slaughtered by a leopard on the lawn on the right.

Sources

External links

Page at museum's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christ between Four Angels 1496 paintings Paintings by Vittore Carpaccio Paintings of Christus Dolens Paintings in Udine Angels in art Paintings of deer Cats in art Holy Lance Crown of thorns Holy Grail