- If we had had a camera in 1544 this could very well have been a photograph of Hans Baldung Grien’s "The bewitched Groom." Like the Bewitched Groom we are left without knowing if our man is dead, in contemplation, or in a state of ecstasy, and like Baldung Grien’s engraving there is a sense of an ambivalent atmosphere with an ensuing sadness, reminiscent of Mantegna’s "Cristo Morto." There is an unknowing sense of helplessness, the dark void could be the witch’s curse upon a guilt ridden, death-fearing man, who lost his chance at repentance yet still retains his innocence. He is prepared to die for he still wears his military boots, attesting to his life as a soldier ready to die. Our Christo Morto is drowning in the Caravaggiesque darkness, and death has left him in a state of ecstatic ambivalence.

Christo Morto