Jacob Cornelisz. Van Oostsanen - An Amsterdam Artist

Jacob Cornelisz. Van Oostsanen - Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen as a Gardener - 1507 - Oil on oak, 55 x 39 cm - Staatliche Museen, Kasse (click photo for larger image)Jacob Cornelisz. Van Oostsanen (c. 1432 - 1533) was a Netherlandish painter who worked mainly in Amsterdam, where he was the leading designer of woodcuts. He liberated the Dutch woodcut from the miniature tradition and gave it a new power and breadth. Although his work is somewhat provincial, he marks the beginning of the great artistic tradition of Amsterdam, and his keenness of observation was to be one of the trademarks of later Dutch art. Of course, he was also a painter.

In the foreground on the small wooden panel featured here, the artist shows a scene from the story of the Resurrection as recounted in St John's Gospel. Mary Magdalene meets the risen Christ and mistakes him for a gardener. When she recognizes him, she throws herself at his feet. Christ then speaks to her the words the artist has painted in artful Gothic lettering on the trim of his garment: 'Touch me not, Mary, for I am not yet ascended to my Father' (Maria noli me tangere - nondum enim ascendi ad patrem).

In the middle and far distance, integrated in a finely-detailed landscape, the painter shows four more episodes grouped around the central motif; the two Marys at the empty tomb, Jesus meeting the three Marys, his encounter with the pilgrims on the road to Emmaus, and the meal at Emmaus. In the artist's time and later, it was quite usual to group together a series of events on one single panel. It was also common to dress figues in contemporary garb.