Resurrection of Christ

Albrecht Altdorfer's Resurrection of Christ at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, painted around 1518 as a companion to his Entombment, transforms the Easter morning miracle into an explosion of supernatural light that was ideally suited to his revolutionary approach to nocturnal illumination. The Resurrection — Christ rising from the tomb while the soldiers sleep — offered Altdorfer the opportunity to deploy his most extraordinary light effects, the figure of the risen Christ radiating a celestial brilliance that dissolves the surrounding darkness and reduces the witnesses to horizontal prostration. As the founder of the Danube School, Altdorfer consistently used religious subjects as occasions for visual innovation, and this Resurrection is among his most spectacular treatments of the divine light motif. The sleeping soldiers of the guard become foils for the supernatural event — their inert bodies and mundane military equipment contrasting with the transcendent luminosity above. The Kunsthistorisches Museum pair of Entombment and Resurrection represents the full arc of the Passion and Easter narrative, from darkness and grief to light and triumph.

The panel renders the supernatural event with Altdorfer's characteristic luminous effects, the risen Christ bursting from the tomb in an explosion of light that demonstrates his unmatched ability to depict radiance.