Title

The Resurrection

Flandes, Juan de (Posible procedencia de los Países Bajos, ca. 1465 - Palencia, ca. 1519)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Object history

It is one of the paintings by Juan de Flandes that come from the old altarpiece of the church of San Lazaro de Palencia. The altapiece was commissioned by Sancho of Castile, who was Prince Don Juan's ayo, to decorate the chapel where he would be buried. In the 18th century, the altarpiece was very deteriorated and it was replaced by another one where some of the panels by Juan de Flandes were included, among them, this one of the Resurrection. In 1989, the painting appeared in the Madrid market (Caylus Gallery), where it was acquired by the Soumaya Museum in Mexico. There is no agreement among the scholars about the number of paintings displayed on the altarpiece. Four of them are preserved in the National Gallery of Washington (Annunciation, Natitivity , Adoration of the Kings and Baptistm of Christ), and other four in the Museum Nacional del Prado with the themes of the Resurreccion of Lazarus, Prayer in the Garden, Ascension of Christ and Pentecost.

Description

In the center of the scene, the resurrected Jesus rises victorious over death on the closed and sealed tomb. He appears with the shroud laid out like a large cloak revealing his naked torso with the spear wound and the nail wounds in his feet and hands. He raises his right hand pointing to heaven, carrying the cross of victory in his left. Surrounding the tomb, three soldiers in charge of its custody are asleep, unaware of the miracle taking place in front of them. The one who is seated in the foreground wears a morion tight to his chin, a leather adarga with two bangs from which a sword protrudes from the lower part and a spear held in his right hand. A crossbowman with a Muslim turban, rests his head on his hand on top of the tomb. Behind him, the morrion of another sleeping soldier appears. The glitter on the steel, and this mixture of oriental clothing with European forms were a constant in the production of Juan de Flandes. The leather adarga is a resource also used in the Resurrection of the main altarpiece of the cathedral of Palencia, including the combination of the three soldiers with Muslim elements. Faced with the frontality that he proposes for the figure of Christ in the Palencia Faced with the frontality that he proposes for the figure of Christ in the Palencia Resurrection, in this one in Mexico, he prefers to opt for a different proposal, making the risen Christ draw attention to the sky. One of the most enigmatic caracters is the man on the background.

Locations

• Unknown date

  church

  Church of San Lázaro in Palencia, Palencia (Spain)

• present

  museum

  Soumaya Museum, México, Ciudad de México (Mexico)