Noli me tangere

This is early Andrea del Sarto, painted around 1510 when he was in his early twenties and still finding his way. It shows the moment after the Resurrection when Mary Magdalene recognises the risen Christ and reaches for him, and he draws back with the words that give the picture its Latin name, noli me tangere, do not touch me. He sets the scene in a quiet walled garden at dawn. It was the first work he made for the church of San Gallo, an Augustinian house outside the walls of Florence, and you can still feel the calm influence of Fra Bartolomeo, the painter-friar whose gentle style shaped the young del Sarto. When Florence was besieged in 1529, that church beyond the walls was pulled down, and pictures like this one had to be carried to safety inside the city.