NARRATOR:
The very foundation of the Christian faith is the belief in Jesus’s resurrection and victory over death. Here the 15th-century Flemish master Dieric Bouts communicates the miraculous nature of this event with great subtlety.
Christ steps from the tomb, heading directly towards us. An angel alights beside him, garments still fluttering behind. The heavy marble lid has slid open to form the shape of a cross. As Christ emerges, he appears to step on his cloak. But is his foot really touching the ground? Pale and ethereal, he seems almost weightless, yet he commands our full attention. His rigid upright form, in the dead center of the picture, holds the complex composition together, stilling the potential tumult of this miraculous moment. As Christ’s head rises above the line of the horizon, dawn breaks like a halo behind him. His gaze radiates spirituality.
A placid, rolling landscape stretches into the distance…. The banner fluttering from the cross draws our attention to a trio of tiny figures on a hill—the three Mary’s descending the winding path to anoint Christ’s body. They will find only an empty tomb.
Around Christ, the three guards are very much of this world. After a long night’s watch, two have fallen asleep. One stretches out on his armor in front… At the left, another is caught in mid-snore. But the soldier on the right starts back in awe at the miracle unfolding before him.
This powerful work is painted on linen, making it lightweight and easy to transport. The medium is distemper, a mixture of glue and pigment thinly applied in translucent layers that show off Bouts’ incredible skill as a draughtsman. In spite of its fragility, the painting has survived remarkably well over the centuries. But at the top, you can make out a strip of blue once protected by a frame, showing how bright the original colors must have been.
Resurrection
c. 1455
Dieric Bouts (Flemish, c.1420-1475)
On View
One of the leading Northern European artists of his generation, Dieric Bouts favored a contemplative approach to painting that embodied an austere, powerful spirituality. As Christ rises from the tomb, the drama and theatricality of the moment are stilled by His serene yet intent gaze and by the lyrical landscape background. The scene unfolds in front of a wide, placid expanse of land, depicted with a sure-handed knowledge of luminous, atmospheric perspective. Successful and revered in his lifetime for his approach to landscape painting as well as his half-figure images of the Madonna and Child, the Haarlem-born Bouts oversaw an active workshop in Louvain after the 1440s—that is, for the majority of his career. His work draws from a variety of Northern and Southern Netherlandish predecessors, most notably Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.
The Resurrection belongs to a now-dismembered four- or five-part altarpiece that tells the story of the life of Jesus. Other pieces of the original ensemble are now at the National Gallery in London (The Entombment) and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (The Annunciation). Like pastel, the medium—distemper on unprimed linen (in German, tüchlein)—is inherently delicate and its colors fugitive, which makes it all the more extraordinary that this early canvas has survived in such a remarkably well-preserved condition. Now discolored from hundreds of years of exposure to light and dirt, the sky was originally a colorful display of pinks and blue, still evident along the upper border where the canvas was protected by a previous frame. The same pattern is apparent in its companion picture at the London National Gallery.
Details
- Artist Name: Dieric Bouts (Flemish, c.1420-1475)
- Title: Resurrection
- Date: c. 1455
- Medium: Distemper on linen
- Dimensions: 35-3/8 x 29-1/4 in. (89.9 x 74.3 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1980.1.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Foscari family (Venice and Vienna, c. 1810).
Count Diego Guicciardi, 1814-15.
Guicciardi family, Milan, by 1858.
Vittorio Melzi, Milan 1872.
Private collection, Milan (Vittorio Melzi?);
[Matthiesen, London, ca. 1946, sold ca. 1958 to];
Private Collection, London, (sale, London, Sotheby's, 16 April 1980, lot 114);
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Count Diego Guicciardi, 1814-15.
Guicciardi family, Milan, by 1858.
Vittorio Melzi, Milan 1872.
Private collection, Milan (Vittorio Melzi?);
[Matthiesen, London, ca. 1946, sold ca. 1958 to];
Private Collection, London, (sale, London, Sotheby's, 16 April 1980, lot 114);
The Norton Simon Foundation.
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- Peter Carpreau, Stephan Kemperdick, Till-Holger Borchert, Valentine Henderiks et al., Dieric Bouts: Creator of Images, 2023, pp. 118-131, p. 122 (ill.), pp. [134]-[135] (ill. detail)
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