Reflections of Holbein’s painting The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb in the novels The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor M. Dostoevsky

Abstract

Hans Holbein’s painting The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb greatly influenced Dostoevsky’s reflections on the possibility of the Resurrection in his late works. The painting is the subject of direct and intense reflection in the novel The Idiot, and the discussion on Holbein’s Dead Christ is usually limited to this novel. In the article, however, the author examines the hypothesis that Dostoevsky did not conclude his discussion on Holbein’s Dead Christ in the Tomb in The Idiot. A comparative analysis of the two novels seems to allow for the possibility that Dostoevsky’s discussion on Elder Zosima’s dead body is in fact a continuation of Dostoevsky’s discussion on Holbein’s Dead Christ.