The Resurrected Christ Appearing to St. Magdalene

The Resurrected Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene (Noli me tangere) was painted in 1514, a decade after the Orvieto frescoes, when Signorelli was working primarily in his native Cortona and nearby towns. This painting at the Detroit Institute of Arts shows the encounter in the garden, the moment Christ tells Magdalene not to touch him. Luca Signorelli, trained under Piero della Francesca and active in Umbria and central Italy across the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, was one of the most original painters of his generation. His mastery of the male nude figure in dynamic action — developed through sustained practice in the fresco cycles at Loreto, Cortona, and above all in the Last Judgment cycle at Orvieto Cathedral — was the direct precursor of Michelangelo's treatment of the human body in the Sistine Chapel. His influence on the development of Renaissance figure painting was fundamental, and his position between Piero's geometric clarity and Michelangelo's dynamic power makes him one of the essential links in the chain of Italian Renaissance art.

Christ's athletic, muscular body reflects Signorelli's renowned interest in anatomy that deeply influenced the young Michelangelo, with powerful contours defining the risen figure against an Umbrian landscape.