ABSTRACT
The Stone of Unction in Jerusalem came to be associated with the object upon which Christ's body was laid and anointed after he was taken down from the cross and prior to his entombment. This chapter discusses the migration of the Stone of Unction as a relatively new component in the space of the church. It discusses that the Stone of Unction in Jerusalem was placed in dialogue with a different slab that was presented as the Stone of Unction in the Pantokrator Church in Constantinople as early as in 1169 and with the visual renderings of the stone in Franciscan imagery of Mary's lamentation over her dead son. Juxtaposing the two Stones of Unction – the one in Constantinople and the one in Jerusalem – provides another layer in the interpretation of the emergence of the stone in Jerusalem. From a material point of view, the stone in Jerusalem stood in dialogue with the one in Constantinople.
