The Resurrection of Christ

Francesco Bacchiacca was a Florentine painter who occupied a singular niche: he worked on a small scale with miniaturist precision, producing paintings that appealed to the sophisticated private collectors of Medici Florence. His Resurrection belongs to his mature period in the 1530s–40s, when Florentine Mannerism was in full development and Bacchiacca was absorbing influences from both Pontormo's expressionism and Northern prints, particularly Dürer's figure types. The subject allowed him to deploy his characteristic cool, enamel-like palette against a dramatic nocturnal sky.

Bacchiacca's characteristically jewel-like colour — intense lapiz lazuli, acid yellow-green, and brilliant crimson — is applied in smooth, miniaturist layers that give figures an almost metallic finish. The sleeping guards are arranged in complex foreshortened poses drawn directly from Northern print sources.