The Resurrection of Christ (verso: Christ on the Cross; grisaille by another hand)

This 1667 double-sided work from the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent offers an unusual glimpse into Flemish Baroque studio practice. The recto presents the Resurrection of Christ in full colour, a triumphant counterpart to the Passion scenes that preceded it in liturgical sequence, while the verso bears a grisaille — a monochrome underpainting or preparatory rendering — of Christ on the Cross attributed to another hand. Such double-sided panels were sometimes produced as altarpiece wings or devotional objects visible from multiple positions, and the combination of full painting with grisaille verso suggests a functional religious context. Gaspar de Crayer, by 1667 in his eighties and one of the last active survivors of the first Flemish Baroque generation, continued to receive ecclesiastical commissions well into his final years. The Resurrection offered a compositional challenge distinct from the Passion: Christ rises triumphant, radiating light rather than enduring suffering, and the soldiers who guarded the tomb collapse in awe. De Crayer's treatment draws on the luminous ascendancy pioneered by Rubens while maintaining his characteristic compositional clarity.

The recto is executed in oil with the warm tonality and controlled chiaroscuro typical of de Crayer's late manner. The Resurrection figure benefits from cool, silvery light suggesting the supernatural, contrasting with the warm earth tones of the collapsing soldiers. The verso grisaille uses brown or grey underpaint to rehearse tonal relationships in a single pigment, providing valuable evidence of period workshop procedure.