Christus als leidender Erlöser

Mantegna spent his life among the ruins and carved marbles of northern Italy, and he brought that archaeologist's eye even to an image of Christ. Here the risen Christ stands upright in his tomb, holding out his pierced hands, lifted by two small angels. But the tomb is a finely carved ancient sarcophagus, the kind Mantegna studied and drew. This was a private devotional picture, meant to be prayed before at home rather than hung in a church. The two angels are a cherub and a seraph, and one of them presses a cheek against Christ's arm. Centuries later a Danish king, Frederick the Fourth, bought the panel to make his collection the equal of Europe's older royal houses, which is how it reached Copenhagen.