The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is probably one of the most famous sacral buildings in the world and, as the central pilgrimage site of Christianity, attracts millions of believers and interested people every year – given that it houses the Golgotha rock and the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus Christ is said to have been buried after his crucifixion. As early as the 4th century, Constantine the Great had the structure built as a place of worship, creating an architecture that would shape the concept of the Holy Sepulcher for centuries: even today, the burial chamber is enclosed by a chapel-like aedicule, which in turn is located within the Dome of the Anastasis.

However, the stories surrounding the tomb of Christ were also a popular and important, if not so visible, theme in book painting. After all, the empty tomb is one of the greatest mysteries of the biblical stories, which occupied countless Christian scholars. How could one imagine the process of resurrection? And what evidence could be brought to bear on it?

As a reminder, the Gospels, as well as some apocryphal writings, tell us that after the crucifixion Jesus' body was buried in a rock tomb sealed with a large, heavy stone. As previously announced, Christ's resurrection occurred three days after the burial, whereupon various people close to him found the tomb empty. In the 40 days that followed, the resurrected Christ appeared again and again to his followers, before finally ascending to heaven.

In the course of the Middle Ages, illuminators found different solutions to bring the key moment of the Resurrection into the image, which must have been quite a challenge, since a moment was to be depicted for which there were no descriptions due to the lack of eyewitnesses. Thus, at first the empty tomb itself became the central theme of the picture, accompanied by the two or three Marys who find there the angel who tells them about the Resurrection. While here the mystery is emphasized by the absence of Christ, later illuminators decided to show the mysterious event itself and thus accentuated Christ's victory over death.

Things are different in the Sacramentary of Henry II: although both the full-page miniature and the ivory panel of the book cover also show the tomb of Christ in an exterior view as a tower-like mausoleum, here the angel explicitly points to the open tomb, whose yawning emptiness is eye-catching. In the dark entrance of the peculiarly layered painted architecture hover only two parts of the shrouds of Christ.

It is astonishing that even the early book painting seems to be oriented more to the pilgrimage site in Jerusalem than to the biblical descriptions. The detailed and magnificent mausoleums do not correspond in the least to the Gospels, which all speak of a rock tomb:

Nevertheless, this pictorial tradition can be found in various artistic testimonies until the 13th century. From about 1000, however, another variant predominates: the sarcophagus.

Pictures showing the tomb as a rectangular, stone sarcophagus often give us a glimpse of the interior of the peculiar mausoleums. By arranging the Marys and the angel in front of ornate pillared arcades with rounded arches, they often remain attached to the traditional, detailed architecture. What is new, however, is that the angel sits on an empty sarcophagus while informing the women of what has happened. The lid of the tomb is thereby strangely displaced, especially in earlier works such as the Gospel Harmony of Eusebius and the Reichenau Pericopes Book, to reveal a view of the void - an interpretation of the stone being rolled away. Both the tomb and the angel seem to be devoid of any physical laws. Rather, they hover as remaining artifacts of the miraculous event in front of mostly golden backgrounds, which also suggest that something divine has occurred here.

Pacino de Bonaguida's wonderful Trecento miniature, on the other hand, shows the scene in a hilly landscape against a deep blue background. The much more naturalistic marble sarcophagus stands outdoors, while the angel sits casually on the high rim of the open tomb. The removed lid is only hinted at in the background here.

Likewise, the miniature in the Brandenburg Evangeliary transposes the scene into a landscape. The open tomb stands on a lush green meadow strewn with flowers, which provides a strong earthly contrast to the golden background in the upper third of the picture. In the grass there are also three other figures that often complement the iconography of the tomb: the sleeping guards - more on this later.

At this point it may be surprising that not even the representation of the women at the tomb is uniform. So there are just as many pictures with two Marys as with three. The fact that they also all bear the same name does not make the whole thing less confusing. However, this corresponds to the differing gospels, which do not tell the story in a uniform way either. Mark describes the situation most thoroughly:

"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and [Mary] Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid." (Mark 16, 1-8)

In many miniatures, the basic pictorial staff is complemented by two to four tomb guards, who are not mentioned at all in the Gospels at the encounter of the women and the angel. Only Matthew mentions them a few passages earlier:

"Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch." (Matt 27, 62-66)

In the late Middle Ages, the empty tomb increasingly fell into the background. Instead, people became increasingly interested in the Resurrection itself, and a new type of image emerged that was to find widespread use well into modern times, especially in panel painting: The Risen Christ ascends or floats from his tomb, which usually continues to retain the form of the sarcophagus, with a gesture of blessing and a triumphal cross. Christ's victory over death becomes the central pictorial theme.

The Passion cycle of the Anglo-Norman Martyrology from the end of the 13th century holds a magnificent combination of the different types of images. Here, Christ's Entombment is followed by the Resurrection with the participation of an angel. Two folios later, the three Marys at the empty tomb are additionally shown communicating with another angel. Later, the empty tomb even appears a third time: in particular, the shroud is inspected by the two disciples John and Peter.

While the guards in the Resurrection miniature of the Anglo-Norman Martyrology are sleeping, the Mainz Gospels already indicate the further development of this group of figures: Full of terror, they look up at the Christ rising from the tomb and try to escape his glory in all directions. This variation became increasingly popular in the further course of the Middle Ages and modern times, as shown, for example, in the Gospel Book of Charles d'Orléans, Count of Angoulême. Here the left guard sitting on the ground seems to be almost blinded by Christ's triumph.