Perugino or Raphael, The Dead Christ, 1495

Christ in the Tomb, Perugino, 1473

In my humble opinion, The Dead Christ appears too lively to be considered dead. The scientific community has performed countless experiments whose findings have been verified by the configurations of world renowned mathematicians and even some Nobel Prize winning economists, which all support the theory that dead people cannot climb out of their coffins. The situation would change, however, if that dead person had been resurrected. My conclusions for art historians to consider would be this; The Dead Christ is a gross misnomer as this Christ appears to be resurrected. Also, art historians have not been able to discern the painter of The Dead Christ, but research and careful analysis narrowed our choices down to two Renaissance artists: Raphael or Perugino. I am about to tell you why Perugino really painted The Dead Christ.

Saint Sebastian (Detail), Perugino, 1490

Exhibit A, background. While looking at numerous paintings of both Raphael and Perugino, I realized Raphael was very fond of his backgrounds. The total darkness, though somewhat out of character for both artists, appears to be more typical of Perugino (who painted another Dead Christ called Christ at the Sepulcher with a completely black background). Exhibit B, Christ’s body. Raphael exaggerates his subjects’ muscles far more deeply with crevices that usually are inhabited by shadows. Exhibit C, Perugino likes to paint the resurrection of Christ. There are two other paintings by Perugino depicting this exact same scene. One I mentioned before and is called Christ at the Sepulcher and the other bears the title Christ in the Tomb. Both of these paintings have Christ in the exact same position as in The Dead Christ. His hands are by his sides, spread out in a welcoming fashion. Christ tilts his head to the viewer’s left, and He always stands upright in his tomb. Exhibit D, Christ’s hip. Perugino had this odd way of exaggerating the curve between his people’s belly and hips. This can be seen in The Dead Christ, Christ in the Tomb, Christ at the Sepulcher, and Saint Sebastian to name a few.
So, review the evidence for yourself. Look at the paintings of Raphael and Perugino and get back to me. If you disagree, I would love to talk it over, but in the meantime I think we can all decisively agree that Christ is either alive in this painting or a puppeteer has rigged Christ’s body with all sorts of strings and now works him like a puppet. You decide.