Bible in art · John

Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen

Albrecht Dürer · ca. 1510
The Met, New York

Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene is one of the Small Passion woodcuts, cut about 1510.

Jesus stands in a garden with a spade over his shoulder and a broad hat, and Mary kneels and reaches toward him; a jar stands on the ground between them. Behind, the sun rises over the hedge and two small figures walk by a walled building.

From the text

Mary taking him for the gardener (John 20:15)
“Do not cling to Me” (John 20:17)
Early on the first day of the week (John 20:1)

The artist’s own

The gardener’s spade and hat, which show Mary’s mistake
Her jar of ointment, which painters often gave her

Details

The spade

A spade over his shoulder, a broad hat on his head.

Mary

Mary kneels and reaches out her hand.

The jar

A jar of ointment on the ground.

Sunrise

The sun rises behind the bushes.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Gift of Junius Spencer Morgan, 1919; acc. 19.73.201) · Woodcut · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".

The verses

John 20:11–18But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet. “Woman, why are you weeping?” they asked. “Because they have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I do not know where they have put Him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not recognize that it was Jesus. “Woman, why are you weeping?” Jesus asked. “Whom are you seeking?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). “Do not cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell My brothers, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.

See it at the museum’s site