Resurrection in Art
For nearly two thousand years, Christian artists have tried to give visible form to the mystery and triumph of Easter. Scripture never describes the instant at which Jesus' dead body came to life, so artists have approached the Resurrection indirectly as well as directly: the opened tomb, the astonished women, Mary Magdalene recognizing Jesus, the disciples at Emmaus, Thomas confronting the wounds of Christ, and the risen Lord meeting His followers beside the Sea of Galilee.
These works are not substitutes for the biblical accounts. They are interpretations of them. At their best, they invite the viewer to slow down and contemplate details that can pass quickly when the Gospel text is merely read: grief becoming recognition, fear becoming worship, doubt becoming confession, and defeated disciples discovering that their Lord is alive.
"Noli me tangere"
Artist: Giotto
1304-06
Painting
In this interpretation of Christ’s resurrection, Giotto conflates two separate events—Christ’s resurrection and his subsequent meeting with Mary Magdalene. To the left of the picture an angel sits on a tomb and assumes the role of witness to the resurrection. On the right, Christ and Mary Magdalene can be seen enacting the scene known as noli me tangere. The phrase, from Latin meaning “touch me not,” refers to the first miraculous appearance of Christ, before Mary Magdalene, after his apparent death. Mary, having found the tomb empty, mistakes Jesus for a gardener and implores him to reveal the location of Christ’s dead body. Christ, in the instant he reveals himself to Mary, proclaims, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father.”
"The Resurrection"
Artist: Piero della Francesca
1460-65
Painting
Originally painted on the wall of the civic hall in Piero's hometown of Borgo San Sepolcro, this fresco was hailed a century later by Giorgio Vasari as Piero's best work. It shows four soldiers sleeping in front of the tomb of Christ, as he climbs up onto it after his resurrection. This painting was particularly important to the town, since it is connected to its founding myth. Two pilgrims from the Holy Land supposedly fell asleep by a tree, much like the soldiers in the painting, and upon awakening they found that the stone they had brought back from the tomb of Christ had miraculously risen up into the tree. They decided to found a town at that spot, named Borgo San Sepolcro after the Holy Sepulchre (tomb of Christ). Piero's Christ was eventually incorporated into the town's coat of arms. This Fresco is in the Museo Civico, Sansepolcro, Italy
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Other artists portray Christ Himself in triumph: alive, glorified, sometimes carrying a banner of victory and sometimes displaying the wounds of the Crucifixion. Such images make an important Christian claim. The risen Jesus is not a replacement for the crucified Jesus. He is the same Lord who was wounded and killed, now victorious over death.
AVWJ's general Bible Art collection includes works explicitly devoted to the risen Christ and can be searched for additional Resurrection subjects.
Carl Bloch's cycle of scenes from the life of Christ includes not only the Crucifixion and Burial but also The Resurrection, Supper at Emmaus, and Doubting Thomas. Seen together, these works carry the viewer beyond the Passion into the encounters that follow Easter morning.
James Tissot created an unusually extensive visual sequence of the Resurrection narratives. His AVWJ presentation includes the Resurrection, the angel at the tomb, the women at the tomb, Jesus appearing to the women and to Mary Magdalene, Peter and John running to the sepulchre, the Emmaus journey, the appearance in the upper room, Thomas, the appearance beside the Sea of Tiberias, Peter's restoration, and the Ascension.
Because Tissot treats so many separate Gospel episodes, his work is especially useful alongside the Timeline and Appearances pages in this Resurrection presentation.
The Resurrection has been portrayed in manuscripts, mosaics, icons, frescoes, altarpieces, sculpture, prints, and modern painting. Artistic conventions have changed dramatically across the centuries, but the central subjects recur because they arise from the Gospel testimony: the empty tomb, the risen Christ, recognition, worship, restored faith, and commission.
AVWJ's Web Gallery of Art presentation provides another large collection through which visitors can explore these subjects across artists, schools, periods, and forms.
Art as Witness and Meditation
No painting can prove the Resurrection, and no artist was present at the empty tomb. Christian art has a different purpose. It receives the testimony of Scripture and asks the viewer to contemplate what that testimony means. It gives faces to astonishment, grief, recognition, doubt, worship, and joy.
Across centuries and cultures, artists have returned to these scenes because the Resurrection stands at the heart of the Christian faith. Their works differ in style and imagination, but the proclamation behind them remains the same one announced on Easter morning: He is not here, for He has risen.
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"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
