The resurrection of Jesus has long been central to Christian faith and Christian art, whether as a single scene or as part of a cycle of the Life of Christ. In the teachings of the traditional Christian churches, the sacraments derive their saving power from the passion and resurrection of Christ, upon which the salvation of the world entirely depends. The redemptive value of the resurrection has been expressed through Christian art, as well as being expressed in theological writings.
However, the moment of the Resurrection is not described as such in the Gospels, and for over a thousand years it was therefore not represented directly in art. Instead at first it was represented by symbolic depictions such as the Chi Rho, the first two Greek letters of Christ, encircled by a wreath symbolizing the victory of resurrection over death. Later various scenes that are described in the Gospels were used, and also the Harrowing of Hell, which is not. In Byzantine and later Eastern Orthodox art this has remained the case, but in the West the depiction of the actual moment of Resurrection became common during the Gothic period.
Early period
In the Catacombs of Rome, artists just hinted at the Resurrection by using images from the Old Testament such as the fiery furnace and Daniel in the Lion's Den. The period between the year 250 AD and the liberating Edict of Milan in 313 AD saw violent persecutions of Christians under Decius and Diocletian. The most numerous surviving examples of Christian art from this period are paintings in the Catacombs of Rome. The Christians shunned cremation and preferred the practice of interment, to preserve their bodies for the Resurrection of the Dead, as Christ was resurrected from the dead. The depictions of the stories of Daniel and Jonah and the Whale in the Catacombs served as historical and Judaic precedents of salvation.
An early symbol of the resurrection was the wreathed Chi Rho, whose origin traces to the victory of Emperor Constantine I at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, which he attributed to the use of a cross on the shields of his soldiers. Constantine used the Chi Rho on his standard and his coins showed a labarum with the Chi Rho killing a serpent.
The use of a wreath around the Chi Rho symbolizes the victory of the Resurrection over death, and is an early visual representations of the connection between the Crucifixion of Jesus and his triumphal resurrection, as seen in the 4th-century sarcophagus of Domitilla in Rome. Here, in the wreathed Chi Rho the death and resurrection of Christ are shown as inseparable, and the Resurrection is not merely a happy ending tucked at the end of the life of Christ on earth. Given the use of similar symbols on the Roman standard, this depiction also conveyed another victory, namely that of the Christian faith: the Roman soldiers who had once arrested Jesus and marched him to Calvary now walked under the banner of a resurrected Christ.
Christology and iconography
The development of iconography of the Resurrection occurred at the same time as the ecumenical councils of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, that were specifically devoted to Christology. The next stage in the development of the image was the use of the secondary event of the visit of the Three Marys (usually two in early depictions), or the Myrrhbearers as they are known in Eastern Orthodoxy, at the empty tomb of Jesus to convey the concept of the Resurrection; this was included in all four Gospels. One of the earliest depictions of the scene is an ivory plaque of c. 400 AD, already including the sleeping guards who were to become a standard element in later depictions, with an Ascension scene above.
The late 6th-century Rabbula Gospel book which includes one of the earliest Crucifixion sequences in a manuscript also depicts an empty tomb under the Crucifixion panel, with an angel seated there who greets two women. Rays of light strike down Roman soldiers, and Jesus greets the two women, who kneel to adore him. Several of the 6th-century pilgrimage souvenir Monza ampullae show the two women and angel, reflecting the scene pilgrims to Christ's tomb saw in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, including a quasi-liturgical re-enactment of this scene apparently staged there. From the second half of the 7th century, depictions of a risen Christ walking in the garden start to appear in conjunction with the two women and the angel in Western art. Later depictions of the Women at the Sepulchre have also apparently been influenced by quasi-liturgical re-enactments; in Western monasteries monks dressed as the angel and the women and re-enacted the scene on Easter morning, which was called the Visitatio.