The Resurrection

This 1715 Resurrection at the Dulwich Picture Gallery depicts the central miracle of Christian faith with the dramatic energy characteristic of Ricci's mature style. Christ rises from the tomb in radiant light while the soldiers guarding it recoil in terror or awe, the contrast between divine luminosity and human confusion a standard Baroque compositional device. Painted the year before Ricci left London, this work represents his English period at its most confident. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, founded in 1811 as England's first purpose-built public art gallery, holds several Italian Baroque works that document the sustained British aristocratic engagement with Continental painting through the eighteenth century.

The risen Christ radiates divine light within the composition, Ricci rendering the contrast between celestial radiance and earthly darkness with the dramatic chiaroscuro and warm palette of his mature religious painting.