Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener (Noli me tangere)

Amsterdam, c. 1640

Object data

pen and brown ink; framing line in brown ink

height 154 mm × width 191 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso: upper left, in pencil, Ex Coll. van Huls 1736 n. 921; centre, in pencil (with the 1906 Hofstede de Groot no.), HdGr 1275; lower left, in brown ink, 421; lower right, in pencil, 31020 / sgR /LJR; below that, in pencil, msi.-
stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228); lower right (effaced), with the mark of Habich (L. 862)

Technical notes

Watermark: None

Condition

Foxing throughout the entire sheet;¹ small lacunas along the left edge

Provenance

…; ? sale, Samuel van Huls (1655-1734, The Hague), The Hague (J. Swart), 14 May 1736 sqq., Album Q, no. 921, as Rembrandt (‘Portefeuille Q. Contenant des Desseins de Rembrandt. Tobie, & 2 autres’), with nos. 922-924, fl. 1:18:- for all;² …; sale, Dr Friedrich Heimsoeth (1814-77, Bonn), Frankfurt (F.A.C. Prestel), 5 May 1879 sqq., no. 147, as Rembrandt, DM 145;³ …; collection Edward Habich (1818-1901), Boston and Kassel (L. 862); his sale, Stuttgart (H.G. Gutekunst), 27 April 1899 sqq., no. 538, as Rembrandt, DM 170, to the dealer F.A. van Scheltema, Amsterdam;⁴ from whom acquired by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague;⁵ by whom donated, to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), as Rembrandt, 1930

Object number: RP-T-1930-29

Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague

Entry

According to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene was the first to whom Christ appeared after his Resurrection. Weeping bitterly after finding his tomb empty, Mary turned around to find Christ standing behind her, but initially mistook him for a gardener. As soon as he uttered her name, she understood that he was her beloved mentor. In an emotional outburst she tried to approach him, upon which Christ instructed her not to touch him 'Noli me tangere', because he had not yet ascended to his Father (John 20:11-18). In this drawing, the Magdalene is seated on the ground with her hands clasped in humility, while her unguent jar stands in front of her. A few steps away, Christ is leaning on a low wall protruding from the cave that houses his grave. He is wearing a broad-rimmed sun hat and bears a shovel in his left hand. The background shows the Three Crosses at Golgotha in the distance at left, a reminder of Christ’s recent death, and the contours of Jerusalem at right.

Two compositions by Bol’s master Rembrandt informed the interpretation of this scene. The first is a painting of 1638 in the British Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, London (inv. no. RCIN 404816),⁶ which depicts the slightly earlier moment in which Mary Magdalene turns around to see Christ. Bol was very familiar with this painting, for he was probably the student who made the exact copy that now hangs in the Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam (inv. no. NK 1648).⁷ Bol adopted the general silhouette of Jerusalem in the background and the frontal pose of Christ in his drawing. In order to create some variation in the latter, he switched the position of the shovel from Christ’s right arm to his left, and added the low wall supporting the right arm. The second composition is a drawing that Rembrandt made circa 1638/40 with the same subject as the present work, which is also preserved in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-T-1961-80).⁸ Bol looked at that work for the position of the kneeling Magdalene, the cave entrance and the general conception of the composition with Jerusalem in the far distance.

Bol’s draughtsmanship during his time in Rembrandt’s workshop between 1636 and 1640 and in the years thereafter was famously similar to Rembrandt’s, which historically resulted in a large number of misattributions to Rembrandt (see also inv. no. RP-T-1930-27). Due to its particularly close stylistic relationship to Rembrandt’s draughtsmanship, the present work was not attributed to Bol until 1985.⁹ Typical for Bol are the wetted ink lines on the far left, and the multiple, sometimes gratuitous lines with which he delineated the city of Jerusalem. As scholars have often noted, the differences between the two Rijksmuseum drawings, the one by Bol, and the other by Rembrandt, can be found mainly in their narrative and emotional conception.¹⁰ Rembrandt’s Christ, steeped in the iconographical tradition of the prints by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) in the artist’s possession (see inv. no. RP-T-1961-80), has gravitas. His outstretched hand lends weight to his utterance of the words ‘Noli me tangere’, and the Magdalene’s conflicted expression conveys the impact of his statement. By contrast, Bol’s Christ has a certain frivolity as a result of his deviation from Rembrandt’s painting and the inclusion of the low wall, on which he leans casually. Also, by basing the figure of Christ on an earlier moment in the story and the Magdalene on a later one, there is a discrepancy in the interaction between the two figures. After all, Christ has not yet revealed himself, but the Magdalene is already kneeling down in recognition of her master.

What art historians have not mentioned, however, is that Bol’s composition is more balanced, and more ambitious than the one in Rembrandt’s drawing. By changing the vertical format of his master into a horizontal one, and by extending the wall of the cave into a backdrop for the two figures, he created a clear contrast between the fore- and background. His higher placement of Golgotha is not only historically more accurate as a rendition of the Hill of Skulls, but also provides an equilibrium with the other two vertical axes in the composition – the city of Jerusalem and the cave. At the same time, the contour lines of the buildings of Jerusalem are too strong for a background motif, and therefore overbearing. This drawing is thus a good example of Bol’s time in Rembrandt’s workshop, a period in which he avidly copied his master’s works, but also used them in order to create his own compositions, with varying degrees of success (see also inv. no. RP-T-1975-85).

Bonny van Sighem, 2000/Ilona van Tuinen, 2018

Literature

(As Rembrandt unless stated otherwise) C. Neumann, Rembrandt, 2 vols., Berlin/Stuttgart 1905 (orig. edn. 1902), I, p. 204; C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1275; G. Baldwin Brown, Rembrandt: A Study of his Life and Work, London/New York 1907, p. 137; F. Schmidt-Degener, ‘Tentoonstelling van Rembrandts tekeningen in de Bibliothèque Nationale te Parijs’, Onze Kunst 14 (1908), p. 106; F. Saxl, ‘Zu einigen Handzeichnungen Rembrandts’, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 31 (1908), p. 342; Teekeningen van Rembrandt in de verzamelingen C. Hofstede de Groot te ’s-Gravenhage, in facsimile weergegeven, Haarlem 1909, no. 12; A.M. Hind, Catalogue of Drawings by Dutch and Flemish Artists Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, I: Drawings by Rembrandt and his School, coll. cat. London 1915, p. 48, under no. 135; W. von Seidlitz, ‘Die Sammlung der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen von Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot im Haag’, Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, N.S. 28 (1917), p. 253; M. Eisler, Rembrandt als Landschafter, Munich 1918, p. 104; J. Kruse and C. Neumann (eds.), Die Zeichnungen Rembrandts und seiner Schule im National-Museum zu Stockholm, coll. cat. Stockholm 1920, p. 5; O. Benesch, ‘Review of E.W. Bredt, Rembrandt-Bibel, München 1921’, Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst (1922), p. 36 (as not Rembrandt); W. Weisbach, Rembrandt, Berlin/Leipzig 1926, pp. 214-15; J.C. Van Dyke, The Rembrandt Drawings and Etchings, New York/London 1927, p. 77, fig. 56, plate 14 (as Flinck); E.W. Bredt, Rembrandt-Bibel, 2 vols., Amsterdam 1931, vol. II, p. 107; F. Lugt, Musée du Louvre. Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord, III: École hollandaise: Rembrandt, ses élèves, ses imitateurs, ses copistes, coll. cat. Paris 1933, p. 15, under no. 1139; F. Lugt, ‘Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ Appearing to Magdalen’, Old Master Drawings 9 (1934), p. 16; W.R. Valentiner, Rembrandt: des Meisters Handzeichnungen (Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben, vols. 31-32), 2 vols., Stuttgart and elsewhere 1925-34, vol. II (1934), no. 507; M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1942, no. 45, fig. 30, with additional earlier literature; W. von Alten, Rembrandts Zeichnungen, Berlin 1947, pp. 19, 155, fig. 27; H.M. Rotermund, ‘The Motif of Radiance in Rembrandt’s Biblical Drawings’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 15 (1952), p. 103; K.G. Boon and I.Q. van Regeteren Altena, Rembrandt: Tentoonstelling ter herdenking van de geboorte van Rembrandt op 15 juli 1606: Schilderijen, Etsen, Tekeningen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Rotterdam (Museum Boymans) 1956, no. 76; C. Müller-Hofstede, ‘Rembrandt as a Draughtsman’, The Connoisseur 138 (1956), p. 38; O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Ausstellung im 350. Geburtsjahr des Meister, exh. cat. Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina) 1956, no. 65; J. Rosenberg, ‘Review of O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London 1954-57, vols. 3/4’, The Art Bulletin 41 (1959), p. 113; C. Roger Marx, Rembrandt, 1960, p. 192; K.G. Boon and L.C.J. Frerichs, with an introduction by F. Lugt, Hollandse Tekeningen uit de Gouden Eeuw. Keuze uit openbare en particuliere Nederlandse verzamelingen, exh. cat. Brussels (Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I) and elsewhere 1961, no. 52; W. Sumowski, Bemerkungen zu Otto Beneschs “Corpus der Rembrandt-Zeichnungen” II, Bad Pyrmont 1961, p. 11, (without his own attribution); E. Haverkamp-Begemann, ‘Review of O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt, London 1954-1957’, Kunstchronik 14 (1961), pp. 51-52; H.M. Rotermund, Rembrandts Handzeichnungen zur Bibel, Stuttgart 1963, no. 238; L.C.J. Frerichs, J. Verbeek and C.W. Mönnich, Bijbelse inspiratie: Tekeningen en prenten van Lucas van Leyden en Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1964-65, no. 114; S. Slive, Drawings of Rembrandt, with a Selection of Drawings by his Pupils and Followers, 2 vols., New York 1965, vol. II, no. 331 (without his own attribution); H. Gerson, Rembrandt Paintings, Amsterdam 1968, p. 492, under no. 82; B. Haak, Rembrandt: Zijn leven, zijn werk, zijn tijd, Amsterdam 1968, p. 154; A. Bredius, Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings (rev. edn. by H. Gerson), London 1969 (orig. edn. Vienna 1936), p. 607, under no. 559; J.R. Judson, E. Haverkamp-Begemann and A.M. Logan, Rembrandt after Three Hundred Years: An Exhibition of Rembrandt and his Followers, exh. cat. Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago) and elsewhere 1969-70, under no. 109; O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Werk und Forschung (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), Lucerne 1970 (orig. edn. Vienna 1935), p. 35; K.G. Boon, P. Schatborn and L. Vitali, Rembrandt: Trentotto disegni, exh. cat. Milan (Pinacoteca di Brera) 1970, no. 11; O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), vol. III, no. 537, fig. 669, with additional earlier literature; B. Haak, Rembrandt-Zeichnungen, Cologne 1974, no. 24; B.P.J. Broos, Oude tekeningen in het bezit van de Gemeentemusea van Amsterdam waaronder de collectie Fodor, III: Rembrandt en tekenaars uit zijn omgeving, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1981, under no. 12, n. 6; C. White, The Dutch Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1982, pp. 106-107, under no. 161; H. Hoekstra, Rembrandt en de Bijbel, 4 vols., Utrecht/Antwerp 1981-83, vol. III, p. 60; B. Haak, Hollandse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, p. 282; P. Schatborn, ‘Tekeningen van Rembrandts leerlingen’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 33 (1985), pp. 94-95 (as Bol); P. Schatborn, Catalogus van de Nederlandse tekeningen in het Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, IV: Tekeningen van Rembrandt, zijn onbekende leerlingen en navolgers/Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1985, pp. 50-51, under no. 22 (as Bol); W.W. Robinson, ‘Review of P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, The Hague 1985’, Kunstchronik 41 (1988), p. 584 (as Bol); J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, 6 vols., Dordrecht 2015, vol. III (1989), p. 263, under no. A 124 (as Bol); M. Royalton-Kisch, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Circle in the British Museum, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1992, p. 106, under no. 41 (as Bol); M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, p. 91 (as Bol); P. Schatborn in H. Bevers, W.W. Robinson and P. Schatborn, Drawings by Rembrandt and his Pupils: Telling the Difference, exh. cat. Los Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 2009-10, no. 12.2 (as Bol); G. Keyes, ‘Perception et croyance: l’image du Christ et le tournant méditatif de l’art religieux de Rembrandt’, in L. de Witt et al., Rembrandt et la figure du Christ, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) and elsewhere 2011-12, pp. 9-11, fig. 1.3 (as attributed to Bol); L. van Sloten in P. Schatborn and L. van Sloten, Old Drawings, New Names: Rembrandt and his Contemporaries, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, no. 1 (as Bol); P. Schatborn, ‘Govert Flinck and Ferdinand Bol: Drawings’, in N. Middelkoop (ed.), Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis/Amsterdam Museum) 2017-18, p. 189, fig. 254

Citation

B. van Sighem, 2000/I. van Tuinen, 2018, 'Ferdinand Bol, Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener (Noli me tangere), Amsterdam, c. 1640', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28494

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