Dostoevsky and “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb”
History
“The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb” is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, created between 1520-1522. Portraying in life-size the body of Christ prior to resurrection, the painting’s unconventional dimensions (30.5 cm by 200 cm) corresponds to the size of an actual tomb (Kunstmuseum Basel). The inscription above the painting reads “IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM”, Latin for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (Middlebury). Unlike many other depictions of the body of Christ during the same era, the body of Christ in Holbein’s painting appears to lack elements of divinity and beauty, with greater depictions of suffering (Floyd). The emaciated limbs and purpling hands and feet, as well as other signs of putrefaction are characteristic of real human corpses. The only pieces of evidences that can confirm the body’s identity are the wounds on the hand and torso as well as the inscription. Legends suggest that Holbein used an actual dead body retrieved from the Rhine as a model (Middlebury).
Dostoevsky's Reaction
Dostoevsky first encountered this painting in Basel, Switzerland in 1867. He had just married his second wife, his stenographer Anna Grigoryevna, and the couple was on their way to Geneva for the honeymoon (Kunstmuseum Basel). Upon seeing the painting in the Kunstmuseum Basel, Dostoevsky was deeply shaken. As described by Anna Grigoryevna in her memoirs:
“On our way to Geneva, we stopped for a day in Basel to see a painting in the museum there that my husband had heard about. This painting by Hans Holbein depicts Christ who has endured inhuman torment, already taken down from the cross and decaying. His bloated face is covered with bloody wounds and his appearance is terrible. The painting had a crushing impact on Fyodor Mikhailovich. He stood before it as if stunned. And I did not have the strength to look at it – it was too painful for me, particularly in my sickly [pregnant] condition – and I went into the other rooms. When I came back after fifteen or twenty minutes, I found him still riveted to the same spot in front of the painting. His agitated face had a kind of dread in it, something I had noticed more than once during the first moments of an epileptic seizure. Quietly I took my husband by the arm, led him into another room and sat him down on a bench, expecting the attack from one minute to the next. Luckily this did not happen. He calmed down little by little and left the museum, but insisted on returning once again to view this painting which had struck him so powerfully.” (Kunstmuseum Basel)
According to Anna Grigoryevna, the painting “made such an impression on Fedya that he declared Holbein to be an outstanding artist and poet. […] Fedya, however, was enraptured by it and, wishing to see it more closely, he climbed on a chair” (Kunstmuseum Basel). This visit to the Kunstmuseum Basel was evidently greatly influential for Dostoevsky, and this influence is clearly visible in Dostoevsky’s third great novel, The Idiot.
Influences
Dostoevsky began writing The Idiot after his arrival in Geneva. Holbein’s paintings appear multiple times throughout the book, and a copy of “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb” hangs in the house of the major character Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin. The painting makes two significant appearances in the book, each time with connections to important themes and characters in the book. Both Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin and Ippolit Terentyev, arguably two of the most important figures in the book, made remarks on the painting. These remarks are closely tied to other recurring themes in Dostoevsky’s works. Critics have suggested a link between Ippolit’s interpretation of the painting and nihilism, a recurrent target of polemics in Dostoevsky’s books (Kunstmuseum Basel). The prince’s interpretation, on the other hand, has been described by some as a “measurement of faith”, presenting an image of the dead Christ that seems to intentionally devastate the viewer and raise doubts regarding the possibility of resurrection (BYU College of Humanities).
“That picture! That picture!” cried Muishkin, struck by a sudden idea. “Why, a man’s faith might be ruined by looking at that picture!” (Part 2, Chapter 4) (Dostoyevsky and Martin)
“This blind, dumb, implacable, eternal, unreasoning force is well shown in the picture, and the absolute subordination of all men and things to it is so well expressed that the idea unconsciously arises in the mind of anyone who looks at it. All those faithful people who were gazing at the cross and its mutilated occupant must have suffered agony of mind that evening; for they must have felt that all their hopes and almost all their faith had been shattered at a blow. They must have separated in terror and dread that night, though each perhaps carried away with him one great thought which was never eradicated from his mind for ever afterwards. If this great Teacher of theirs could have seen Himself after the Crucifixion, how could He have consented to mount the Cross and to die as He did? This thought also comes into the mind of the man who gazes at this picture.” (Part 3, Chapter 6) (Dostoyevsky and Martin)
Sources
“Dostoevsky's Measure of Faith: College of Humanities.” | BYU College of Humanities, 28 Jan. 2015, https://humanities.byu.edu/dostoevskys-measure-of-faith/.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, and Eva Martin. “The Idiot.” Project Gutenberg, 1 May 2001, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2638.
Floyd, Emily. “Hans Holbein the Younger, Dead Christ Entombed.” MAVCOR, 1 June 2020, https://mavcor.yale.edu/conversations/object-narratives/hans-holbein-younger-dead-christ-entombed.
“Holbein and Dostojewski The Dead Christ and Its Effect.” Texts – Kunstmuseum Basel, https://kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/exhibitions/2021/holbein-and-dostojewski/texts.
Middlebury. “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb.” The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, https://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/novels/idiot/deadchrist.shtml.
Further Reading
Kasatkina, Tat'iana. "After Seeing the Original: Hans Holbein the Younger's Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb in the Structure of Dostoevsky's Idiot." Russian Studies in Literature 47.3 (2011): 73-97, https://doi.org/10.2753/RSL1061-1975470303.
Meerson, Olga. “Ivolgin and Holbein: Non-Christ Risen vs. Christ Non-Risen.” The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 39, no. 2, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, 1995, pp. 200–13, https://doi.org/10.2307/309373.
Ács, Pál. “Holbein’s ‘Dead Christ’ in Basel and the Radical Reformation.” The Hungarian Historical Review, vol. 2, no. 1, Institute of History, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2013, pp. 68–84, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42568691.