(Antwerp 1601–1678)
Noli me tangere,
oil on canvas, 115.2 x 161.8 cm, framed

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the authenticity of the present painting after his examination of the original. A certificate, dated 16 February 2016 is available.

Dr. Ertz writes: 'Having thoroughly examined the painting in question, I am convinced that the landscape is a work by the Flemish master Jan Brueghel the Younger (Antwerp 1601–1678). The extremely skilfull painted figures are by the hand of an artist who must have been a follower of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). The colours give a bright and brilliant impression; the pigments are applied in an impasto manner and are typical of the period of the 1640s. […] The painting depicts a scene from the New Testament that is known in art history as Noli me tangere (Do not touch me). The two protagonists – the resurrected Christ in the guise of a gardener and the kneeling figure of Mary Magdalene – are placed on slightly elevated terrain slightly right of centre, dominating the scene in the foreground. The figures are surrounded by motifs that can be associated with the figure of the gardener: artichokes near the left margin, followed by tulips and other small blossoms and a wheelbarrow filled with artichokes on the right; a handled basket filled with cabbage is behind the wheelbarrow; and radishes and artichokes scattered at Mary Magdalene’s feet. Next to her kneeling figure we can see an ointment container, as she was on her way to anoint the body of Christ. Near the right margin blossoms sprinkle the ground in front of Christ, with further flowers planted in two earthenware pots. Behind the front elevation, a central alley of trees orthogonally leads up to a ridge that separates the scene from the backdrop, which is rendered in various shades of blue. In the far distance we can see a town high up on a mountain, with a circular building that seems to allude to the Temple of Jerusalem. The space rising from the foreground towards the left accommodates Christ’s rock cut tomb, with seven figures gathering in front of it. The hill surmounting the tomb is densely grown with leafy trees. The setting sun, sending out its rays from the upper left, bathes the scene in a soft and tender light that serves to additionally enhance the vigorous accents of colour in the foreground – above all Christ’s and Mary Magdalene’s vividly coloured garments.'

Compared to the total number of paintings dealing with religious themes, the share in which we can recognise the father’s example is relatively low. We know that such themes as Christ Preaching on the Sea of Galilee, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Flight into Egypt were familiar to the son from the oeuvre of his father, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and that he copied and varied them. On the other hand, in such compositions as the present Noli me tangere scene, for which the son could not hark back to his father’s models, he proved a highly qualified and independent artist. He treated the subject from the late 1620s until well into the 1640s in several variations, all of which betray Jan Brueghel the Younger’s painterly qualities.

With the present composition, Jan Brueghel the Younger and his figure painter had established an autonomous type for the pictorial formulation of a biblical quote to which they themselves would subsequently refer, as would further figure painters (see the comparative examples) and many contemporaries, who were to use it for similar configurations. In the present case, the two artists have arranged the individual components in a particularly harmonious fashion: in the right foreground, the two protagonists Mary Magdalene and Jesus, his spade and the flowers and vegetables designating him as a gardener (based on the Gospel of John), have been removed from the surrounding space and placed on a path; the rock-cut tomb in the left background symbolises the past, whereas the temple on the right might be interpreted as the future of Christendom. From the very outset of his career as a painter, which began in his father’s studio in Antwerp even before the artist travelled to Italy, until well into the 1650s, Jan Brueghel the Younger devoted himself to landscape painting featuring Christian subject matter. Until the mid-1630s, he proved a loyal keeper of his father’s legacy, which he continued on a supreme level. It therefore also becomes plausible why such great masters as Peter Paul Rubens, Josse de Momper the Younger, and Hendrick van Balen would collaborate with the son of their friend Jan Brueghel the Elder. We know numerous paintings that are joint products created by Jan the Younger and the artists mentioned above. However, their friendship to the artist’s farther, Jan Brueghel the Elder, would certainly not have sufficed for them to agree to work together with his son, for they would not have risked to lose their reputation. Jan Brueghel the Younger’s painterly brushwork, which the artist developed in his later years, fully comes into its own in the present painting, such as in the path forming the stage for the two Christian protagonists, in the rocky hill on the left, and in the sky. Detaching himself from the meticulous and detailed brushwork of his earlier years, which he had adopted from his father, he finally introduced his own pictorial inventions. Although many inspirations for the son’s paintings derived from his father’s work, the present painting suggests that it was Jan Brueghel the Younger himself who developed this compositional type on the basis of his father’s achievements. At least I do not know any painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder that could have served as a model for the present composition. In order to corroborate the attribution of this unsigned painting to Jan Brueghel the Younger, it is helpful to compare it to other authentic works stylistically related to it.

The following four paintings devoted to the same subject matter are particularly related to it in terms of composition, individual motifs, and palette:

German private collection, oil on panel, 59 x 88 cm; collaborator: Hendrick van Balen, suggested date: c. 1630 (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Jüngere, Freren 1984, cat. 152, plate 30);

English private collection, oil on canvas, 54.6 x 83.2 cm; collaborator: circle of Peter Paul Rubens; suggested date: 1630s (see op. cit. Ertz, 1984, cat. 154, plate 31);

Bremen, Kunsthalle, inv. 736-57/3, oil on panel, 60 x 100 cm; collaborator: circle of Peter Paul Rubens; suggested date: late 1630s (see op. cit. Ertz, 1984, cat. 155, plate 32);

San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, inv. 49.6, oil on panel, 57.4 x 92.7 cm; collaborator: follower of Peter Paul Rubens; suggested date: late 1630s (see op. cit. Ertz, 1984, cat. 156, ill.);

According to Klaus Ertz, the painting Noli me tangere should be identified as an ‘original work by Jan Brueghel the Younger, painted in Antwerp in the 1640s with the participation of a follower of Peter Paul Rubens as a figure painter’.