Easter Sunday marks the day when, according to the Bible, Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, having been crucified and buried two days earlier. This is seen as a key moment in the establishment of the Christian faith and, almost ever since, has been celebrated as the culmination of Holy Week.

In this painting, the seventeenth-century Dutch master Rembrandt captures the moment when Christ’s grieving companion Mary Magdalen visits his tomb to anoint Christ’s body, only to realise that the Messiah is standing before her once again. Initially distraught at the discovery of an empty tomb, now occupied only by angels, Mary appeals for information to a man at the scene dressed as a gardener, shown here in the centre of the composition, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding a spade. When this man calls Mary by her name, however, she recognises that he is in fact Christ himself. As dawn breaks, a dawning realisation is also shown on Mary’s face, the resurrected Christ illuminating the shadows.