  About the Artwork
  
  
  Poetic in conception and innovative in composition, this painting is a masterpiece of Sienese fifteenth-century painting. In this scene, the still sleepy soldiers are amazed to see the risen Christ float gloriously above the sealed sarcophagus, holding the banner of victory and the olive branch of peace. The extensive landscape is both naturalistic and symbolic: the Resurrection is equated with the sunrise, perhaps the first such depiction in Italian painting. Originally this was one of five small panels of an altarpiece dedicated to the Passion of Christ.
Paintings of this time were not signed, so names of artists are frequently unknown. This artist is called the Master of the Osservanza from a triptych he painted in the Church of the Osservanza near Siena.
  
  
  Title
  The Resurrection
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. between 1440 and 1445
  
  Artist
  Master of the Osservanza
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  active ca. 1440-1480
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Italian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Tempera on wood panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 14 3/16 × 17 7/16 inches (36 × 44.3 cm)
  Framed: 18 1/4 × 24 × 2 1/2 inches (46.4 × 61 × 6.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  60.61
  
  
  Copyright
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