The Resurrection

Art Historical Context

Created around 1600 by the Roman artist Giuseppe Cesari, known as Cavaliere d’Arpino, this dynamic drawing captures the triumphant moment of Christ’s Resurrection. Cesari, a leading painter in papal Rome, worked in a late Mannerist style that blended elegant, elongated figures with a growing sense of drama soon embraced by Baroque artists. The scene likely shows the risen Christ hovering above awestruck soldiers or witnesses, a subject that resonated deeply in Counter-Reformation Rome as a symbol of faith and renewal. Executed in pen and brown ink with brush-applied wash and white highlights over black chalk, the sheet reveals the artist’s working process. This versatile technique allowed Cesari to explore light, volume, and movement quickly, creating luminous effects that would later guide larger frescoes or altarpieces. Such preparatory drawings were prized by collectors for their immediacy and insight into an artist’s creative thought. Now part of the Metropolitan Museum’s collection through a generous 1887 gift, the work offers today’s visitors a rare glimpse into the inventive mind of one of Rome’s most influential artists at the dawn of the seventeenth century.