The Dead Christ with Angels

Edouard Manet French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 810

In the mid-1860s, Manet made an ambitious foray into religious painting, beginning with his submission of this work to the Salon of 1864. Inspired by Andrea del Sarto’s Christ as the Man of Sorrows (ca. 1525), which he copied in Florence, Manet incorporated the two angels described in the Gospel according to Saint John, inscribing the New Testament citation on the rock in the foreground. Critics denounced the picture, particularly referencing the realism of Christ’s cadaverous body, and faulted Manet for depicting Christ’s wound on the wrong side. Degas later admired the work for its “real drawing” and the “transparent quality of the paint.”

The Dead Christ with Angels, Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris), Oil on canvas

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