The Resurrected Christ Appearing to Mary Magdelene in the Garden

Date:: ca. 1500–1520

Culture:: South Netherlandish

Medium:: Wool warp; wool, silk, and gilt wefts

Dimensions:: Overall: 94 x 80in. (238.8 x 203.2cm)

Classification:: Textiles-Tapestries

Credit Line:: The Cloisters Collection, 1956

Accession Number:: 56.47

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 305

In the Gospel of John (20:11–17), Mary Magdalene arrives at Jesus’s empty tomb and asks a nearby gardener where she can find Jesus’s body. Calling her by name, the gardener reveals himself as Christ and asks that she report his resurrection to the disciples. In this tapestry, Mary wears a sumptuous cloak, shimmering with gilt-metal-wrapped thread. She kneels with her hands extended, eyes fixed on Christ’s body. Christ raises his right hand, commanding Mary to keep her distance, and presents his wound. As if captured in the exact moment of his revelation, Christ holds a humble spade, though he appears here in his resurrected majesty. Gilded threads blaze forth from his head to create a cruciform halo.

Emile Gaillard, Paris (sold 1904) ; his sale, Hôtel Emile Gaillard, Paris (June 8-11 & 13-16, 1904, no. 762) ; Rita de Acosta Lydig American, 1880–1929, New York (sold 1913) ; Lydig Collection sale, American Art Galleries New York (April 4, 1913, no. 136) ; Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, New York (1913 - sold 1956)

Illustrated Catalogue of the Rita Lydig Collection. New York: American Art Association, April 4, 1913. no. 136, ill.

Loan Exhibition of Religious Art for the Benefit of the Basilique of the Sacré-Cœur of Paris, at the galleries of Jacques Seligmann & Company, Inc., March-April 1927. New York: Jacques Seligmann & Co., 1928. pl. IX.

Macé de Lépinay, François. "Noli Me Tangere: une tapisseries bruxelloise du XVe siècle inédite." Bulletin Monumental 144, no. 1 (1986). p. 37, fig. 6.

Cavallo, Adolfo S. Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 30, pp. 446-451.

Antoine, Elisabeth. Sur la Terre Comme au ciel: Jardins d'Occident á la fin du Moyen Âge. Paris: Musée National du Moyen Âge - Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny, 2002. no. 8, pp. 40-43.

Timelines
Low Countries, 1400-1600 A.D.

Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Department

The Cloisters (2,339)

Object Type / Material

Geographic Location