Guercino (1591-1666)
Cristo risorto appare alla madre (The Resurrected Christ Appears to the Virgin)
1629
Oil on canvas, 260 x 179.5 cm
Civica Pinacoteca Il Guercino, Cento
Wrapped in a metallic-colored drapery, beautiful and solemn in his gait, with the flag of the Resurrection moved by the wind, the risen Christ surprises the Madonna at home, while she was reading her prayer book, just as it had happened when the angel had surprised her to announce her pregnancy. The return of the risen Son to her fills her with emotion and the meeting between the two takes on a touching theatricality.
Always considered one of the masterpieces of the painter from Cento, this painting represents a scene that is true in its feelings, such as Mary’s tear of emotion, and idealized in the classic composure of Jesus who, having conquered death, bursts into his mother’s room to give her the happy news, striding with a balanced posture that recalls the models of ancient statuary, while the modeling of the chest takes on the tactility of the flesh under the fingers of the woman who caresses it.
Guercino‘s ability to enter a new phase of his poetics, influenced by the experience of his stay in Rome (1621–1623) and by his closeness to the theorists of classicism such as Monsignor Agucchi, is best expressed in this painting which has been the object of great admiration for centuries by illustrious travellers, including Goethe, and which, precisely because of its quality, was taken by Napoleon‘s troops and brought to Paris, where it was recovered by the sculptor Canova to return it to the painter’s homeland. (Civica Pinacoteca)