After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds’ weight. John 19:38-39

Representation

Grieshaber’s Pietà stands in cruel opposition to his crucifixion. The subdued and serene atmosphere of Christ’s death mutates into a scene of bloody horror and shrill lamentation. Everything in this woodcut is monumental: the bodies, the revolt, the grief, and the strength of the mother. A peasant woman as to her physical appearance, she is in fact the mother of all mothers, wrestling the remains of life from the tentacular arms of death. But Jesus has truly passed on; he is no longer present in this gruesome shell. What Mary fiercely embraces is not a corpse but the life divine she is carrying in her heart.

Identification

They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. John 19:40-42

Golgotha is retreating into the background. Christ’s death takes on a new meaning, that of a memorial of faith and everlasting presence. The solemn figures in somber attire, carrying in their hands the palms of victory, have not gathered to commemorate death but to celebrate life. For the monumental tomb is open and filled with brilliant emptiness. Grieshaber’s entombment is a scene of anticipated resurrection. The grave faces standing around the tomb know: He is not dead, he lives. There is only one figure, perhaps Mary Magdalene, who wrings her hands and is still grieving.