Zoppo was trained in Padua, a northern Italian city famous for a refined tradition of Humanism and as an early center for the collecting of art. As a painter, draftsman, and manuscript illuminator, Zoppo came into contact with the principal intellectual circles of northern Italy in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. An early work, this rare large composition was inspired by the highly expressive religious art of Donatello, Andrea Mantegna, and Giovanni Bellini that Zoppo encountered upon his arrival in Venice in 1455. The chiaroscuro drawing technique with delicately rendered shadows and finely stippled highlights on a dark ground imitates the effect of low-relief sculpture. The sheet seems to have been conceived as a finished work in its own right, possibly intended for study in an erudite collector's scriptorium. Unusually, the ascetic figure of Christ strides boldly forward from the scene of his resurrection, where the Roman soldiers (who were supposed to stand guard) sleep by the empty Antique-style sarcophagus set amidst craggy rocks. With his banner and blessing gesture, Christ beckons the spectator to participate in the realm of miracle. This iconic disposition of the figure suggests that the image may have also played a role in private devotion.