Ad Imaginem Dei: Easter Sunday

Showing posts with label Easter Sunday. Show all posts

Saturday, April 4, 2026

Links for the Easter Season

Anthony van Dyck, The Resurrection
Flemish, c. 1631-1632
Hartford (CT), Wadsworth Athenaeum

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

The days of Lent and the days of sadness that are the Triduum are past and Easter 2026 has arrived!

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

I wish you a happy and profoundly inspiring Easter Season.

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

To guide some of your explorations of the themes of this joyful season I recommend to you the links below. They lead to some of the commentary that I have written over the years regarding the iconography of the Easter Season, which extends from this happy day till Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.

Please feel free to explore the art created to imagine the Resurrection and the days immediately following, all the way through to the feast of the Holy Trinity. I hope that considering these events and the pictures that artists have created to illustrate them over the centuries will help you to feel more connected to the long tradition of Christian art offered to the glory of God and to the living Church of our own time.

Links have constantly been improved over the years. New images, better quality images and new material are constantly being incorporated. If the original publication date suggests the material is now old, it isn't. I am constantly revising and housekeeping.

Please note that over the course of the Easter Season I will be overhauling every one of the essays listed below to swap out old images with few pixels for newer ones with a greater number of pixels, giving you more visible details when you enlarge the images. I will also be adding new images that turn up in the course of my hunt for improved ones (and this happens all the time). Much more material turns up every year! So, check back often to see what's new.

The Resurrection, the Incredulity of Thomas, Emmaus

Title

Link

The Women at the Tomb

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/04/iconography-of-resurrection-women-at.html

Noli Me Tangere

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/04/iconography-of-resurrection-noli-me.html

Jesus, the Gardener

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2017/04/iconography-of-resurrection-she-thought.html

The Incredulity of St. Thomas (Doubting Thomas)

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-incredulity.html

Emmaus -- The Journey

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-emmaus.html

Emmaus -- The Recognition

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-emmaus_07.html

Climbing from the Tomb

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-climbing.html

Hovering over the Tomb

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-hovering.html

Bursting from the Tomb

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-bursting.html

An Awkward
Resurrection Image

Apparitions

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-happy-and-blessed-easter-season-to.html

Good Shepherd Sunday

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/good-shepherd-sunday-fourth-sunday-of.html

The Lake of Galilee -- The Disciples Go Fishing

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-lake-of.html

Commission to Peter -- The Good Shepherd Transfers Responsibility

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-peters.html

The Commission to the Apostles

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/05/iconography-of-resurrection-commission.html

Christ Appears to His Mother

Christ Presents the Redeemed to His Mother

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/06/iconography-of-resurrection-christ.html

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2017/05/iconography-of-resurrection-christ.html

The Ascension

Striding into the Sky

https://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/06/iconography-of-ascension-part-i-of-iv.html

Lifted in a Mondorla or on a Cloud

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2017/05/iconography-of-ascension-part-ii-of-iv.html

The Disappearing Feet

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2017/05/iconography-of-ascension-part-iii-of-iv.html

The Direct Approach

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2017/05/iconography-of-ascension-part-iv-of-iv.html

Pentecost

Tongues of Fire

https://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2016/05/tongues-of-fire.html

At This Sound, They Gathered In a Crowd

A Dove Descending

The Holy Trinity

Worthy Is The Lamb

Father, Son, Spirit

Iconography of the
Holy Trinity –
Imagining The Unimaginable

The Holy Trinity -- Love Made Visible

The Holy Trinity -- The Throne of Grace

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2016/05/at-this-sound-they-gathered-in-crowd.html

https://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-dove-descending.html

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2016/04/worthy-is-lamb.html

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2008/05/father-son-spirit.html

http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2012/06/iconography-of-holy-trinity-imagining.html

https://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2019/06/god-so-loved-world-that-he-gave-his.html

https://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-holy-trinity-throne-of-grace.html

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Iconography of the Resurrection -- Jesus the Gardener

Fra Bartolomeo, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1506
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Jesus is carrying a hoe

“Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been.

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”

Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.”
(John 20:11-18)

The dramatic encounter of Mary Magdalene and Jesus on Easter morning, as told in the Gospel of St. John, is known as the iconographic subject called the "Noli me tangere", from Christ's admonition "Stop holding on to me!" to her. In 2011 I reviewed some of the images associated with this iconography. This year I decided to update that essay (and many others) with some new images. Over the last several years the amount of material available for art research on the internet has expanded incredibly and many more images are now available for studying these subjects.

Noli Me Tangere
German, c. 1300-1350
Mendig, Niedermendig, Catholic Parish Church of Saint Cyriacus
Jesus is shown carrying a shovel.

In the course of looking at newly available images of the Noli me tangere type I was struck by something that had not been so obvious six years ago. There is an iconographical offshoot of the subject that focuses on just one portion of a sentence in the Gospel narrative and weaves a story out of it. This is the subject of the Risen Jesus depicted in the Noli me tangere image as a gardener.

Master Francois and Collaborators, Noli Me Tangere, the Women at the Tomb, the Tomb Guards
Being Bribed by the Priests
from Speculum historiale by Vincentius Bellovacensis
French, 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 50, fol. 233
At the far left in the upper register the Risen Jesus carries a shovel.

In the Gospel, John explains Mary's initial inability to recognize the Risen Jesus by saying that "She thought it was the gardener" (John 20:15). This is, of course, in keeping with the Gospel reports of others who failed to recognize Him after the Resurrection. In some way He was the same, but different and, in a certain sense, He seems to have veiled Himself from them in order for Him to greet them first. Thus it is with Mary to whom He speaks and with the disciples at Emmaus with whom He breaks bread and with the larger group of disciples on the shore of the Lake of Galilee when He invites them to breakfast.

Master of the Flemish Boethius. Noli Me Tangere
from Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolphe de Saxe
French, c. 1480
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 181, fol. 155
This Jesus carries a shovel and wears a farmer's hat.

Artists sought to remind their audience of this non-recognition part of the story by equipping the Risen Jesus with gardening equipment: spades, hoes, etc. and, in a few cases, a gardener's hat. This strand seems to begin in the fourteenth century, so far as I have found to this point. It ends in the eighteenth century, again so far as I have found to date. And the artists who have produced works with Jesus the Gardener are among some of the most illustrious in the history of art.

Fra Angelico, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, 1440-1442
Florence, Convento di San Marco
Fra Angelico and his assistants show Jesus carrying a hoe over His left shoulder.

Perugino, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, 1500-1505
Chicago, Art Institute
Here again Jesus carries a hoe.

Jacob Crenelisz van Oostsanen, Noli Me Tangere
Dutch, 1507
Kassel_Staatliche Museen
In this picture Jesus holds a shovel.

Correggio, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1525
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

In this beautiful Correggio painting, a cultivator, shovel and gardener's straw hat lie on the ground next to Jesus.

Titian, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1514
London, National Gallery
That is a garden hoe, and not a cross, that Jesus is holding in His left hand.

Franciabigio, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, 1520-25
Florence, Museo del Cenacolo di San Salvi
Once more Jesus carries a hoe over His shoulder.

Jacopo Pontormo, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, 1530s
Private Collection

Pontormo's Jesus has the head of the hoe looped over His left arm.

Bronzino, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1560
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Jesus is holding a shovel in His right hand as Mary approaches.

Lelio Orsi, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1575
Hartford (CT), Wadsworth Athenaeum
In this dancelike encounter with Mary Magdalene, Jesus again holds a hoe in His right hand.

Francesco Albani, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1620-1625
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Instead of the Resurrection banner, Jesus is carrying a shovel in this image.

Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, Noli Me Tangere
Italian, c. 1620
Prato, Museo Civico

In this dramatically Caravaggesque picture Jesus carries what is probably a shovel (we can see only the shaft) and wears a

very wide brimmed gardener's hat.

Rembrandt, The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary
Dutch, 1638
London, Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In Rembrandt's picture Jesus wears the gardening hat, carries a shovel and appears to have a kind of knife tucked into His belt.

Alonso Cano, Noli Me Tangere
Spanish, c. 1640
Budapest, Szépmûvészeti Múzeu
Cano's Jesus holds a shovel.

Carle van Loo, Noli Me Tangere
French, c. 1740
Private Collection
The Jesus in Van Loo's image also holds a shovel.

Uniquely among the monotheistic religions Christianity permits the use of images of God. Why? The answer lies in the Christian belief in the reality of the Incarnation. Since God has assumed human nature and form the Biblical prohibition against making images of God ceases to apply. As the second Council of Nicea declared in 787 "Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets."
(Council of Nicaea II: DS 600)

This decree of Nicea II was promulgated for the entire church, both Greek and Latin speaking, and was a response to the strongly held beliefs of the iconoclasts, who wished to suppress the use of images, which had convulsed the Byzantine Empire and the eastern churches for almost 100 years. In addition, St. John Damascene, last of the Greek Fathers and a staunch defender of images, had written in De imagine ("In Defense of Images") "Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, (Bar. 3.38) I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter." (St. John Damascene, De Imagine, Part I, 15-16, from Internet Medieival Sourcebook.)

The ways in which this imaging of the divine has been accomplished in the course of time is the subject of Christian iconography. To quote from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, iconography is "1: pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject; 2: the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject; 3: the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a body of art".

The iconography of any subject develops and changes over time. Christian iconography develops and changes too, as reflection on the Gospels and Tradition develops over time and as the act of making art develops and changes as well. This is the background for this blog.

Ad Imaginem Dei

Pages

Saturday, April 4, 2026

Links for the Easter Season

The Resurrection, the Incredulity of Thomas, Emmaus

Apparitions

The Ascension

Pentecost

The Holy Trinity

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Iconography of the Resurrection -- Jesus the Gardener

Central Park Sunset

Oscar Wild 1997(?)-2014