The Resurrection of Christ

The composition derives from the lunette executed between 1442 and 1445 by Luca della Robbia for the door of the north sacristy of the Duomo; yet precisely the iconographic similarity allows us to sense fully what change of culture and stylistic interests had taken place in Florence in little more than thirty years. The solemn measure of a vision in which nature, idea and feeling coincide in an organic structure is replaced by a surge of pathetic dynamism that sharpens and exaggerates every characterising detail (which explains the partial borrowings, as in the angels, from Donatello's inventions), then reabsorbs every "episode" into the resounding rhythm of the composition. It was in this dynamic climate of passionate "agonistic physiology" (Longhi) that the difficult genius of Leonardo grew up, not without conflicts.