''Noli me tangere'' or ''Christ Appearing As A Gardener To Mary Magdalene'' is a 1548-1560 painting by the Flemish painter

Lambert Sustris Lambert Sustris (c. 1515-1520 – c. 1584) was a Dutch painter active mainly in Venice. The works Sustris completed in Italy exhibit either a Mannerist style or qualities that may be deemed proto- baroque. He is also referred to as ''Alber ...

. It is now in the Palais des beaux-arts de Lille. It shows the eponymous scene from the

Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...

, set in a Renaissance-style garden with geometric

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

s, a fountain, a covered passageway and a cloister. Wearing a sumptuous gold and silver

damask Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...

robe,

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...

kneels before Christ, holding her left hand to her breast and her right on an

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

vase. He leans on a hoe and points to the sky, whilst a white bindweed around the trunk of the tree behind him symbolises the fall of sin.Notice du tableau sur le site musenor
/ref> A woman's shadow stretches along the passageway, possibly symbolising Mary's spreading the news of the Resurrection to the Twelve Apostles.

History

It was produced during Sustris' first or second stay in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

, probably for count Fugger of Kirschberg and Weissenhorn, whose coat of arms are in the bottom left of the work. Around the time of his stay there the artist assimilated the Italian style and combined the Venetian style with the

mannerism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

of Francesco Salviati and

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bo ...

. This and other works of that period by him show the influence of

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, with whom Sustris had collaborated since 1540, and anticipated

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

's 1560s compositions. It was then acquired by a rich banker and collector,

Everhard Jabach Everhard or Eberhard Jabach (10 July 1618 – 9 March 1695) was a French businessman, art collector and director of the French East India Company. He was born in Cologne in the Holy Roman Empire but later naturalised as a French subject. Life His ...

, who sold it to

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

in 1671.Catalogue entry - Palais des beaux-arts de Lille.
/ref> Louis put it in the Salon des Bassans at the

château de Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

, near the entrance to his bedroom.Dominique Garrigues, ''Jardins et jardiniers de Versailles au grand siècle''
Editions Champ Vallon, 2001, chapitre 7, p. 213 After the Chaptal Decree of 1801 the French state assigned the painting (then attributed to

Dosso Dossi Giovanni di Niccolò de Luteri, better known as Dosso Dossi ( 1489–1542), was an Italian Renaissance painter who belonged to the School of Ferrara, painting in a style mainly influenced by Venetian painting, in particular Giorgione and early T ...

) to the museum in Lille. It was re-attributed to Sustris between 1801 and 1835.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noli me tangere 1540s paintings category:1550s paintings Paintings in the collection of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille Sustris