Calling all (visual) art fans! Can you identify this Lamentation from my description?

[Mannabar]

I was going to post this in Visual Arts, but apparently that's for posting original artwork, not discussing artwork.

My memory (which by this time has probably accumulated many errors) is of a photo of this work, not the work itself. I think it's a painting or a relief (or a painted relief) but it could be of some other medium, perhaps a tapestry. It's a variation of the Lamentation of Christ depicting Jesus in the arms of a very large and broad male figure believed to be Joseph of Arimathea, but the size difference looks almost unnatural. The strangest detail I recall is the exaggerated size of the big man's nipples.

(I hope that last statement doesn't offend the staff. Being one of the users who couldn't make their first 20 posts without mentioning nipples is bad enough. :roll

Does anyone know this work and where I can find a photo of it for an art review thread? If it helps, I remember both figures having common Mediterranean Jewish features, unlike many Western depictions that Caucasianize them.

 

[Mannabar]

Gah! The third paragraph was supposed to be half the normal font size, with an eye-rolling emoticon! Well this is embarrassing.

 

[d taylor]

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So what are you saying the figure representing Joseph of Arimathea was unclothed (at least from the waist up). Because in artwork depicting the lamentation of Christ usually Christ is the only unclothed one.

 

[Mannabar]

An odd deviation from the norm indeed. That could be another reason (apart from the extreme size difference) why the art critic expressed uncertainty about the big man's identity. He said that while most viewers believed it to be Joseph of Arimathea, he wondered (because of the imposing size) if it was actually supposed to be Jehovah comforting Jesus in his final hour. A heartwarming thought, yes?

The reason I bring this up for discussion is that recently I've been noticing extrabiblical references to Abraham's bosom, and looking back, I wonder if the big man is the artist's conception of Abraham carrying Jesus to paradise. That could be the reason for the bare chest with prominent nipples: to emphasize Abraham's bosom.

After all, according to the gospel of Luke, Jesus's last words were, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," but had he not said to the penitent criminal, "today you will be with me in paradise"?

 

[Mannabar]

Oh, and thanks to the mod who fixed my font size faux pas.

 

[Joy]

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