The Resurrection of Christ

Léon Salavin and Jeanne Fournier ran their family's chocolate business, had no children, and collected paintings, among them early Italian panels. In 1973 they gave the collection to the Fondation de France. It was the first foundation the Fondation de France took under its wing, and part of the gift was sold to fund honour loans for young people starting out, while a group of panels went to the Louvre on long-term deposit. This small Resurrection is one of them.

It measures 22 by 29 centimetres and is a fragment of a predella, the strip of small scenes along the base of an altarpiece, cut down on the right. The frame is not original. Christ rises with his banner above the tomb, the guards sleep around it, and a woman stands at the right edge, close to where the cut begins. Before Salavin it belonged to Félix Charles Mestrallet, a Paris painter and art dealer.