CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/4/2021

Titian's celebration of Easter, from 'The Christian Year in Painting'

Translated as "Do Not Touch Me," Titian's "Noli me Tangere" (1514) depicts Jesus and Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, upon her discovery of him, resurrected, outside the tomb where she had seen him dead and buried prior to the Jewish Sabbath on Good Friday. According to the gospels, when Mary Magdalene first sees Jesus, she mistakes him for a gardener. In The Christian Year in Painting, author John S. Dixon, explains, "John and Peter went away, but Mary stayed weeping. When she looked into the tomb again, she saw two angels who asked why she was weeping. She answered: 'They have taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they have laid him.' As she spoke, she turned and saw Jesus, whom she took for a gardener, and said: 'Sir, if you have carried him off, tell me where you have put him and I will go and take him away.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary!' She answered, 'Rabbuni!' ('Master!'). Jesus said, 'Do not touch me because I have not yet ascended to the throne of the Father.'"