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Article: Dostoyevsky and Holy Russia.
- Article from:
- The World and I
- Article date:
- September 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) and his wife, Anna, visited the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland. There they saw a large painting titled Dead Christ by the sixteenth-century German Hans Holbein. Anna glanced at it and moved on. A quarter of an hour later she returned to her husband, still staring at the painting. His face was paler than usual. His gray-blue eyes had a frightened look. Gently taking his arm, Anna led away the subdued man, who vowed after leaving the museum to view the painting again.
Artists traditionally depict Christ's corpse with a mystical glow or calmness that portends resurrection. In Holbein's rendering, however, Christ's face ...