Noli me tangere

The biblical episode known as Noli me tangere (Touch me not) is narrated in the Gospel of Saint John (20:14-18). It describes how, following the Resurrection, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene as she stood weeping at the empty tomb. Supposing he was a gardener, Mary asked if he was the one responsible for removing Christ’s body. Only when he called her by name, did she recognize him, exclaiming ‘Rabboni!’ (Master). Christ responded by saying ‘Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my father’ and commanded her to go to the disciples, letting them know that he had risen.

The slender, sinuous figures of Christ and the Magdalene exhibit clear parallels with those in a polyptych signed by Francesco di Antonio da Ancona and dated 1393 in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (see V. Markova, Italija: sobranie Ïivopisi. Italy: collection of paintings. Gosudarstvennyj Muzej Izobrazitel’nych Iskusstv imeni A.S. Puškina, Moscow, 2002, pp. 68-70). The polyptych was undoubtedly commissioned by a church of the Franciscan order and may have originated in San Francesco ad Alto, Ancona.

We are grateful to Professor Mauro Minardi for proposing the attribution. A copy of Minardi's letter of expertise, October 2015, and scientific analysis by Manfred Schreiner, July 2015, is available from the department upon request.