The Resurrection

Benvenuto di Giovanni

National Gallery of Art

A pale-skinned man stands in front of a door-like opening set into a rocky cave against a deep landscape in this nearly square painting. The man, Jesus, has long reddish-blond hair, a red beard, and a disk-like gold halo. A muted lavender-purple cloth drapes over one shoulder, across his partially bare, muscular chest, and around his hips and legs. His right hand, to our left, is raised with the first two fingers lifted. A tall staff tucked into his other elbow has a long, white banner with a red cross, a forked end, and a red, plus-shaped cross finial. Behind Jesus, a rectangular doorway with molding is surrounded by craggy stone. The man stands on a chest-shaped stone tomb, and a white stone slab lies across the ground in front of it. Six men with pale skin lightly tinged with gray lie under and around the slab. They wear armor in shades of canary yellow, rose pink, aquamarine blue, violet, and orange. Five of them lie with legs and arms akimbo and one, to our right, props himself on one elbow and looks up at Jesus. Pebbles are strewn in a loose line across the ground along the bottom edge of the composition. Rivers zigzag back through more rocky formations and mountains to a town in the deep distance to the right and pale blue mountains along the horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up this composition. A few thin clouds drift across the sky that deepens from pale yellow over the mountains to deep blue across the top edge of the painting,