Christ and the two Marys 

William Holman Hunt painted "Christ and the Two Marys" during a period of intense religious and social change in Victorian England. Hunt, deeply religious, was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who rejected the industrial age aesthetics, seeking instead a return to the spiritual and artistic purity of pre-Renaissance art. Here, we see the moment after Christ's resurrection, not in triumphant glory, but in a quiet, almost domestic scene. The two Marys, overcome with emotion, encounter the risen Christ. Hunt challenges conventional representations of women, portraying the Marys not as passive figures but as active witnesses to the divine. Their emotional display contrasts with Christ’s serene, almost ethereal presence. In this moment of grief turned to astonishment, Hunt invites us to reflect on the role of women in religious narratives and the power of personal faith in the face of societal upheaval. It's a powerful reminder of the human side of religious experience and the complex interplay between faith, gender, and social change.