Spanish school; 17th century.

Spanish school; 17th century.
"Noli me tangere".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 40 x 30 cm; 54 x 42 cm (frame).
"Noli me tangere", literally "do not touch me", are the words that Jesus Christ said to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection. The quotation corresponds to John 20:17. The original expression in Greek suggests an action that continues in time, so perhaps a better translation would be: "do not hold me back". Mary Magdalene is a main character in the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, who stands at the foot of the cross at his Crucifixion, and who is in fact the person who goes before Peter and John to the tomb on Easter morning, and the first to whom Jesus appears resurrected. Mary goes to the tomb and sees it open, so she believes that the body has been stolen, adding to her grief at the loss of the body which she believes has been desecrated. The Gospel tells us that she bends down to the tomb and sees two angels sitting inside asking her why she is weeping; when she turns around, she finds herself facing Jesus, but her tears do not allow her to see, until He calls her by name. Then Jesus said to her, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my Germans and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God". At first sight it is a puzzling phrase, but, as we have already indicated, to understand it we must turn to the Greek, the language in which the Gospel was written, and scrutinize the original grammatical structure. Thus, the phrase should be interpreted as "Do not hold me back, for I have not yet ascended with the Father, and you must hasten to announce my resurrection to the apostles". It is as if he was telling Mary that when he was in heaven with his Father she could embrace him as long as she wanted, but that at that moment she should hurry and tell her brothers. In art, this episode known as "Noli me tangere" is one of the most widespread since the Renaissance. The subject is usually depicted in an orchard, in a forest or in the Garden of Eden, but in this case the setting is eliminated, in a resource very typical of the Neapolitan naturalistic baroque, to focus the viewer's attention on the two protagonists.