Resurrection of Jesus

In March 1857 a Milanese collection went under the hammer in Paris, and among the lots was a small altarpiece credited to "Jean Hemeling", a spelling of Memling's name then in common use. A later sale catalogue says it had belonged in the 18th century to the Tiepolo, a family of Venetian counts, before passing to Giuseppe Vallardi, a print dealer in Milan. It apparently failed to sell, and the Louvre bought it at a second Paris sale in 1860, from the collection of Vallardi's nephew. This is the centre panel, painted around 1490. Christ steps out of the tomb holding a banner with a cross, an angel lifts away the lid, and the guards around him sleep or shrink back in their armour. On the hill behind stand three empty crosses, and above the arch small carved children hold up garlands of leaves and fruit.