Noli me tangere 1650 - 1699

Curator: This delicate pencil drawing, currently residing at the SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst, depicts "Noli me tangere." It's believed to be from somewhere between 1650 and 1699, though the artist remains anonymous. It's quite striking, isn't it? Editor: It really is. Immediately, the light feels… unsettled, you know? There’s such subtle tonal variation, like a whisper of doubt hangs in the air even amidst this divine encounter. It evokes a certain anxiety or a cautious kind of reverence, even at a small scale, so strange! Curator: That resonates! It's rendered in the Baroque style, which is often characterized by its drama. Here, the artist employs line work with astonishing restraint to depict what history often refers to as history-painting. I sense it too; that hesitant uncertainty! Editor: Precisely, look at the rendering of Christ and Mary, the gardener’s garb, that simple, practical tool… It’s so cleverly done: almost mundane to the eye! Curator: It’s the inherent paradox of the scene isn’t it, the miraculous intersecting with the everyday. His gesture "do not touch me" could almost imply… a preservation of this liminal state, or is it me just imagining it now? Editor: No, no! Not just you! There's this intense… yearning radiating from Mary balanced against a firm and almost fatherly rebuff coming from Jesus's index finger and distant, knowing look, so moving to witness that inner turmoil, a really touching piece indeed. I guess its impact can last for centuries, as they say! Curator: Exactly, it shows what art is able to express still now, after so many years have gone by! Editor: You got it right. So powerful!