Imitator of Andrea Mantegna, 'Noli me Tangere', perhaps 1460-1550

According to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene wept when she saw that the tomb in which Christ had been buried was empty. A man appeared and asked her why she was crying. Thinking he was the gardener, she asked him where the body was – but as soon as he spoke her name, she realised it was Christ. She reached out to touch him, but he stopped her: ‘Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God’ (John 20: 17). Noli me tangere is Latin for ‘Do not touch me’.

Mary Magdalene kneels before Christ as though she has just fallen to the ground in shock and reverence after recognising him. She reaches out to touch him but he recoils and puts his hand out to stop her. In his right hand he holds a banner with the symbol of the Resurrection – a red cross on a white background – affixed to a staff with a cross at the top.

Christ is raised up on a grassy area that is planted with a variety of saplings, indicating new life. This new life is the eternal life available, according to the Gospels, through belief in Christ’s miraculous resurrection from the dead. A vine, rich with grapes, encircles the pruned branches of a large tree creating an elaborate arch that frames Christ’s slender figure. The bark of the tree is cracked, revealing a hollow within the trunk; it appears almost dead, except for the fresh branches which have sprung from the pruned stumps.

Wrapped around the branches of the tree is a grapevine – a detail also found in Mantegna’s grisaille painting Samson and Delilah and in the Agony in the Garden, which he made for the predella of the San Zeno altarpiece (Musée des Beaux Arts, Tours). The grapes symbolise the wine drunk by Christians at Mass in memory of Christ’s death and resurrection, which was believed to transform into Christ’s blood. Within the tree is a snake, slithering its way up to a nest of young chicks – this must refer to the devil, who appeared to Adam and Eve in the guise of a snake, tempting them to eat the fruit which God had forbidden them. The moment came to represent the sinfulness of humanity, and it was this sin for which Christ’s death and resurrection atoned.

A slightly more unusual feature of the picture is the beehive, swarming with bees, just behind Mary; one also appears in Mantegna’s version of the Agony in the Garden for the predella of the San Zeno altarpiece. The beehive was a symbol of the Christian Church, and the bees its virtuous and diligent Christians who worked to spread the Gospel message. The outpouring of bees here might be a reference to Christ’s command to Mary to spread the news to the disciples, who would then preach his message across the world.

The minute, sharp folds in the draperies and the use of gold to highlight the foliage behind Christ are characteristic of Mantegna’s style but as with the other pictures in the series – The Maries at the Sepulchre and The Resurrection – the quality is not comparable and the landscape background is much softer, with blurred edges.