Auferstehung Christi

Depicting the Resurrection of Christ, this panel from around 1450 presents the triumphant moment when Christ emerges from the tomb while guards sleep or recoil in confusion. The German title Auferstehung Christi preserves the original commission context, and the work belongs to a multi-panel Passion cycle the Master of Schloss Lichtenstein produced for a Bavarian religious foundation. The Resurrection was a theologically essential scene in such cycles, balancing the grief of the Lamentation and the horror of the Crucifixion with proof of divine victory over death. Christ is rendered upright with the banner of resurrection prominent, towering over figures whose collapse into sleep forms a visual contrast with his vertical authority.

Tempera on panel, gold leaf haloes. The stark contrast between the erect, radiant Christ and the collapsed soldiers below is achieved through tonal control — the figures on the ground are rendered in darker, earthier pigments, pulling focus upward to the luminous central figure.