There are great museums all over the world, of which some of these museums have a serious collection of Christian art. While it is true that Christ in such art, is depicted in many forms, such as in his birth, or while performing acts from within his ministry, or in his crucifixion – what seems to be missing is that we are often left with virtually none or little art that reflects the resurrection of our Savior. This is indeed puzzling, because for sincere Christians, if there is no belief in the resurrection so depicted in art, then the mission of Christ, would appear to have ended in tragedy and not ever to be seen as actually being triumphant.
Look, even as good as great art can be, and even as good as great art can affect us in a meaningful way, it has to be said, that seeing paintings of Christ's crucifixion over and over again, but not being able to balance that by seeing not even one resurrection of Christ is disturbing. Indeed, one of the tenants of Christianity is that Christ rose from the dead, demonstrating that mankind could not kill not only this messenger, but that it could not kill even His body, despite seemingly having done so. That is a very powerful message, which brings us hope, increases our belief in justice, and helps to make us to have faith that physical death is not ever the end.
The problem with the emphasis upon the crucifixion over the resurrection is that Christian art seems to be fixated that the sacrificial death of Christ is the seminal event of Christ's ministry. Perhaps this interpretation is correct, but in reality, without the resurrection, Christ becomes nothing much more than a gifted soul, that met what would appear to be an ignoble death at the hands of the Romans. That is to say, we need the resurrection because the resurrection completes the story of Christ, and hence should itself be emphasized above the crucifixion, so that the more important construct to have is that the birth of Christ, celebrated at Christmas, represents the avatar that is the anointed one, and Christ's resurrection celebrated at Easter, represents that Christ is immortal, unconquerable, and triumphant over the physical form.
At the end of the day, art is art, and if a particular artist wants to concentrate on the crucifixion or has been contracted to do such, then it is what it is. Nevertheless, from a patron standpoint, there are only so many ways that Christ's crucifixion can be portrayed; whereas, there are a multitude of ways to paint His resurrection, because Christ's resurrection is not physically described in the Bible, which would thus present the opportunity for artists to bring their own interpretation and imagination to the depiction of that resurrection. This thus would mean that there would thereby be a fair multitude of interpretations of Christ's resurrection, which would present to those so viewing such, a fair chance to have a more vivid and more meaningful engagement to that resurrection.