THE RESURRECTED CHRIST
MARCO BASAITI

Nothing is triumphant in the Risen Lord painted by Marco Basaiti: although there are the typical iconographic elements of the resurrection – the white shroud, the crusade banne – the body of Jesus is idealized and barely shows the wounds of passion. Furthermore, He does not look at the viewer but He is absorbed, pensive, with a very sweet look. Behind him, on the left, we see the sepulcher; on his right below, a cave symbolizes the underworld, emptied by his victory over death. He is sitting on a rock: nature becomes his throne, and right on that stone the words inspired by the sixth chapter of the Letter to the Romans are engraved: “Death has no more power over me”. An intense light dominates in this picture, an Easter light that is perfectly described by Romano Guardini, one of the greatest theologians of the 19th century: “Christ was able to bring us the holy light because he was full of the love of God. He, whom no one forced, ventured into the dark; he experienced pain and disrepute, without evading anything, without relief, until death. Therefore, He was able to bring the light of God. He who wanted to turn on this light, he had to go through the most frightening event earlier, going beyond it. He had to die and rise. Now, He possesses the power and is the Lord in an ineffable sense. Therefore, we want to pray to Him, so that He lets that light shine in our hearts; that light that does not come from any human force but from the holy depth of God.