Resurrection of Christ

Luigi Benfatto trained in the busiest painting workshop in late-16th-century Venice, that of Paolo Veronese, who was his uncle. He is often known instead as Alvise dal Friso, Alvise being the Venetian form of Luigi. When Veronese died in 1588, painters like Benfatto carried his style on and kept the city's churches supplied with the crowded, richly coloured religious scenes they wanted. This Resurrection shows Christ rising above the tomb while the soldiers set to guard it fall back in confusion, a subject painted again and again in these years. The bright drapery and the twisting, active figures are exactly what he had absorbed in his uncle's shop, where he learned to fill a large canvas with movement and light.