Her hands reach up; his open hand holds her back without touching.
Bible in art · John
Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen as a Gardener (Noli me Tangere)
Workshop of Rubens · c. 1615–1618
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
This large canvas was made around 1615–18 in the Antwerp workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, where assistants painted many pictures after the master’s designs; in old sales it passed as Rubens’s own.
Mary Magdalene kneels in a garden and reaches out. Jesus, wrapped in a red cloak, bends towards her and holds her back with an open hand. He leans on a spade, and a jar of ointment stands at her feet.
From the text
- A garden near the tomb, early in the morning (John 20:1, 20:15)
- “Thinking He was the gardener” (John 20:15)
- “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’” (John 20:16)
- “Do not cling to Me” (John 20:17)
The artist’s own
- A spade, so that he looks like the gardener she took him for — a detail painters often added
- The jar of ointment, the sign by which painters usually marked Mary Magdalene
- Marks of the nails on his hand and foot, as painters showed the risen Jesus
- A Flemish landscape with a castle on a hill
Details
Hands apart
The spade
He leans on a spade, like a gardener at work.
The jar
A silver jar with a lid stands on the ground by her knee.
Cucumber leaves
Broad leaves, yellow flowers and a small green fruit — the museum calls it a cucumber plant.
The wound
A red mark on his foot, like the one on the hand that rests on the spade.
A castle
A castle on a hill in the blue distance.
Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish, 1577–1640. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt; SK-A-2336) · Oil on canvas · Image: "Public Domain" (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); object metadata: CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) — Rijksmuseum Linked Art record.