Shortly after completing this painting, Manet exhibited it in the Salon of 1864. Many critics denounced the black shadows, Christ's cadaverous body, and the earthly realism of the angels and the ornithological accuracy of their wings, which seemed inappropriate to the subject. In an inscription on the rock, Manet identifies the Gospel according to Saint John as the source for the subject of this painting, but in the passage cited the angels are positioned differently, and in all four Gospels the resurrected Christ is no longer in the tomb.

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