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Jan Brueghel the Elder “Christ's Descent into Limbo” at the Colonna Gallery in Rome


Jan Brueghel the Elder, Descent of Christ into Limbo, at the Colonna Gallery in Rome
Descent of Christ into Limbo

Jan Brueghel the Elder (1588 - 13 January 1625) “Descent of Christ into Limbo”

Oil on copper (25.2 x 34.7 cm) 1594

Brueghel presents us with a frightening image full of suffering and monsters: here is the fall into darkness of the damned souls of sinners who have disobeyed divine law.

The only glimmer of hope appears at the bottom left for those who escape the cruelty of the monsters by turning their backs on them to join Christ, who has come to pull them out of limbo, this world neighbouring hell.

Limbo is the temporary venue of souls excluded from heavenly paradise because of original sin alone; it is an intermediate venue where they await redemption.

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Descent of Christ into Limbo, at the Colonna Gallery in Rome
Descent of Christ into Limbo
The description of Jesus' descent into limbo is found in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of Pilate (4th century), which described this descent into hell as an article of faith.

The canonical gospels say nothing about the three days Jesus spent in the tomb after the crucifixion, except for an allusion to limbo by Saint Peter.

In the Golden Legend (chapter 52), witnesses who had been resurrected by Christ say that when Jesus arrived, light flooded the darkness and the patriarchs rejoiced:

One after another, Adam, Isaiah, the elder Simeon, John the Baptist, and Seth spoke.

The demons closed the iron bolts of the bronze doors, but David sang the psalm: “Lift up your heads, O gates; be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!” (Ps 24:7).

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Descent of Christ into Limbo, at the Colonna Gallery in Rome
Descent of Christ into Limbo
Then Jesus stretched out his hand to pull Adam out of hell, and all the righteous followed him.

In most depictions of Jesus' descent into Limbo, Adam has become an old man while Eve is still young; both are naked once again, restored to their innocence and pulled out of hell in the opposite direction to that which had driven them out of the Garden of Eden.

Limbo is therefore not hell, but only a venue where the souls of the righteous stayed before the coming of Christ, a venue that borders purgatory and hell, but is clearly separated from them, as can be seen in this painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Abraham's bosom is the “limbus patrum” or “border of the fathers”, as Abraham is often accompanied there by Isaac and Jacob, and it is then referred to as the “bosom of the three patriarchs”.

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Descent of Christ into Limbo, at the Colonna Gallery in Rome
Descent of Christ into Limbo
By extension, Abraham's bosom became the venue for the souls of children who died without being baptised and who committed no sins due to their innocence: their dwelling place is called "limbus puerorum".

Brueghel follows the usual iconography by surrounding Christ with a large halo of light.

Adam and Eve stand beside the Saviour, who reaches out to the prophets to help them leave limbo while waving the white banner of the Resurrection.

The rest of the painting is a particularly terrifying representation of hell, populated by monsters where the damned suffer various types of torture.

Brueghel Christ Limbo | Aeneas Sibyl | Pluto Proserpina | Magi | St. Peter Celestine
Art Story History Garden | Bronzino | Brueghel | Tintoretto | Van Wittel | di Giovanni | Vivarini | Palma | Voet | Maratta
Colonna Art Story | Location | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorisations



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