The Resurrected Christ Appearing to His Mother in Late Medieval Netherlandish Altarpieces

Abstract

Linked to the thirteenth century devotional text Meditationes Vitae Christi, visual representations of the Resurrected Christ Appearing to His Mother appear in Italian manuscripts, either of the Meditationes itself or in other devotional treatises around 1300. The epitome of the motif, however, is probably the depiction in the right panel of the Miraflores Triptych, painted by Rogier van der Weyden in Bruges in the 1440s. Previously virtually unnoticed in art historical scholarship, the motif re-appears in Netherlandish carved altarpieces made c.1480–1530. The earliest occurrence seems to be in the form of a minor sculpted scene in the Brussels altarpieces now known as Strängnäs I, yet its more common inclusion is as a painted scene on the inside of the small upper wing to the viewer’s right. Without dismissing the effects of patronage, commissions and the circulation of models, I will argue for the inclusion as partly resulting from artists’ increased partaking in religious reading due to the dissemination of Vita Christi literature in the Netherlands. As it were, however, the motif appears proportionally more frequent in the altarpieces imported to Scandinavia than elsewhere, allowing for discussions about the iconographical program in altarpieces made for export and the possibility of the appreciation of the scene in the north is to be traced not to Vita Christi-literature in general, but to the encounter between mother and son as referenced in the visions of St Birgitta.