Holy Women at Christ' s Tomb

In the late 1590s Annibale Carracci left Bologna for Rome and set about studying the antique statues and Raphael's frescoes the city was full of. This was painted there, for Lelio Pasqualini, a canon of Santa Maria Maggiore who owned one of Rome's great collections of ancient coins and marbles. That antiquarian eye may explain the unusual, sculptural calm of the scene. Three women who followed Christ have come at dawn to anoint his body and found the tomb open and empty, and an angel seated on the edge of the stone sarcophagus tells them he has risen. Their startled turn and the cool classical light show Annibale absorbing Rome fast. The Hermitage bought the canvas in 1836.