Noli me tangere

Bronzino made this altarpiece in 1561 for a family chapel, the Cavalcanti chapel, in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence. The scene is the morning after the Resurrection, when Mary Magdalene mistakes the risen Christ for the garden's keeper, reaches for him, and hears him say noli me tangere, do not touch me. Bronzino leaned on a design by Michelangelo, whom he revered, for the twisting poses of the two central figures. The reason it now hangs in Paris and not in Florence is plainer and harder. French troops carried it off during Napoleon's occupation of Italy in 1812, and it entered the Louvre two years later. It is a big panel, close to three metres tall, painted on poplar in the cool, polished style Bronzino had perfected at the Medici court, every fold of cloth sharp and enamel-smooth.