Sculpting the “Ebbing After-Life of Death” in Renaissance Italy

Abstract This article traces signs of life in figural sculptures made in Italy between 1400 and 1550. It is inspired by a Victorian writer, Vernon Lee, who, during her encounters with Renaissance Italian statues, observed a quality she called the “ebbing after-life of death.” The article establishes the quality as a conscious feature of Renaissance art, defining it through key art works that encouraged contemporary viewers to see and feel movement. Such works, it is argued, describe the process of dying rather than dead bodies. A parallel examination of Renaissance texts reveals how these descriptions fit with contemporary tastes that saw the representation of death as “the most difficult of all to do.” The classical inheritance will be considered by looking at literary accounts of “the last sinking into death” and the death sleep motif. Finally, Goethe’s concept of Übergang helps explain how the “ebbing after-life” came to pass in viewers’ imaginations.