by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Christ steps from the tomb
Christ rises at the centre of a three-panel painting, one foot forward as soldiers fall or shrink away below him. Light catches his torso and the white cloth around him; a red banner streams high at the right. The narrow panels beside this movement show two saints standing apart. Rubens made the work for a memorial in Antwerp Cathedral, where a picture of life overcoming death had a direct meaning for the family who commissioned it.
The Cathedral of Our Lady[1] dates The Resurrection of Christ to 1611–12 and identifies its medium as oil on panel. It gives the centre panel as 138 × 98 centimetres and each wing as 136 × 40 centimetres. Those separate measurements suit the approved view of an opened triptych. Combining them into one approximate overall number would obscure the fact that the work has distinct hinged parts.
The centre scene is lively, but the wings and original purpose are essential. In a January 2026 account of its restoration[2], the cathedral calls it the epitaph triptych of Jan Moretus and Martina Plantin. Plantin commissioned it for Moretus, and it was erected in the cathedral choir. The saints on the wings were chosen in relation to the couple. This is a painted memorial as well as a Resurrection image.
At a Glance
- ArtistPeter Paul Rubens [1]
- Date1611–12 [1]
- MediumOil on panel [1]
- Centre panel138 × 98 cm [1]
- Each wing136 × 40 cm [1]
- CommissionMartina Plantin for Jan Moretus's epitaph [2]
- LocationCathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp [1]
Where this work sits in Rubens's career
The Elevation of the Cross
1609–10The Descent from the Cross
1611–14The Resurrection of Christ
1611–12The Garden of Love
1630–35The Three Graces
1630–35Contents
- The centre panel: movement and light
- John the Baptist on the left
- Saint Martina on the right
- A memorial for Jan Moretus
- An open and closed triptych
- The painting's current conservation history
- Reading the three panels together
The centre panel: movement and light
Rubens gives Christ a strong upward and forward movement. He does not merely hover above a sealed tomb. The cathedral says he steps out of his rock tomb, and the visible composition supports that reading. One leg leads, the other supports his rising body, and the banner lifts higher still. The surrounding darkness and pale clouds make the figure the clearest form.
Below, guards are caught in different responses. One turns away, another huddles near the ground, and a large back fills the foreground. Their bodies make the lower part busy and unstable. Christ's vertical movement becomes more decisive beside their collapse. The scene reads as an event that interrupts ordinary watchfulness.
The cathedral describes the soldiers as recoiling in astonishment. The retained image conveys their sudden movement, though a small reproduction cannot settle every expression. The men also give scale to the central figure. Christ rises above people who had been guarding the tomb and are now unable to contain what occurs.
A white cloth curves around Christ's body, contrasting with his skin and the darker rock. The red banner to the right gives a second upward accent. Its colour pulls the eye through the top of the panel, while the lower guards keep it grounded. Rubens balances an image of triumph with the physical disorder of witnesses on earth.
John the Baptist on the left
The left wing shows John the Baptist, identified by the cathedral as one of the patron saints of the Moretus–Plantin couple. He stands in a rocky setting and turns toward the central action. His presence is not a claim that John attended the Resurrection. He belongs to the memorial framework, where a saint with the patron's name can stand beside the event central to Christian hope.
In the retained image, John occupies a narrow vertical panel. His figure is not crowded by soldiers or angels. The quiet format makes a deliberate contrast with the middle. The left wing can be read on its own as an image of a saint, but its inward orientation gives it a role in the joined composition.
The cathedral's identification is important because a figure with rough clothing or a wilderness setting could invite vague guesses. Here the side-panel subject is documented. The article can call him John the Baptist without relying only on attributes visible at low resolution. It should also avoid inventing a dialogue between John and the risen Christ: the triptych brings them together pictorially across different sacred histories.
The wing's narrowness affects the overall rhythm. It is a pause before the dense central surge. A viewer moving from left to right passes from a standing saint into the shocked guards and the rising Christ. That transition gives the Resurrection even more energy.
Saint Martina on the right
The right wing depicts Saint Martina, according to the cathedral. She is the counterpart to John the Baptist as a patron saint connected with Martina Plantin. Her placement makes the commissioner's presence felt without turning the work into a portrait of Plantin herself.
In the retained image, Martina stands with dark drapery around her and brighter fabric catching the light. Her face turns inward. She occupies the same kind of narrow space as John, though the two figures differ in pose and surroundings. Their shared scale brackets the centre panel, keeping the viewer's attention on Christ while giving the epitaph a personal frame.
Martina's presence matters especially because the work was commissioned by Moretus's widow. A reading that describes only Christ and the soldiers would leave out her chosen connection to the painting. The saints make the memorial specific: they bind a universal Resurrection subject to Jan Moretus and Martina Plantin by name.
The cathedral also identifies angels on the outer sides of the wings. Those closed faces are not visible in the open view used here. The institution says the angels appear about to open door wings behind them, alluding to the Resurrection within. The triptych therefore offered different visual experiences when closed and opened. Its present web illustration shows one state of a richer hinged object.
A memorial for Jan Moretus
The cathedral says Martina Plantin commissioned the epitaph for Jan Moretus and that it was placed in the choir. An epitaph is made to mark and honour a dead person. In that setting, Christ's emergence from the tomb was not an incidental subject chosen for spectacle alone. It addressed the hope of life beyond death in the place where Moretus was remembered.
On its object page, the cathedral explicitly links the Resurrection to a memorial for the dead. It presents the subject as a sign of divine love triumphing over death. This is the cathedral's devotional interpretation and the key to the work's original function. The image is still a powerful painted drama in a museum-style reproduction, but its purpose cannot be fully understood without the church context.
The Moretus memorial must also be kept separate from Rubens's Rockox–Perez epitaph triptych at KMSKA. Both are three-panel works connected with Antwerp patrons and Resurrection belief. They are different objects, with different donors, sites and centre compositions. Here the central Christ steps from the tomb before guards; in the Rockox–Perez triptych, the risen Christ shows his wounds to apostles. Their similarity of function makes accurate identification more, not less, important.
The side saints reinforce the distinction. John the Baptist and Saint Martina belong to the Moretus–Plantin scheme. Nicolaas Rockox and Adriana Perez themselves appear on the wings of the KMSKA epitaph. Confusing the two would replace the cathedral's carefully chosen patron saints with the wrong people and the wrong burial context.
An open and closed triptych
The inherited image shows all three panels open. The centre is broad, the wings narrow. Each vertical frame marks a boundary, but the figures' inward turns keep the group connected. The visual structure lets a viewer register both the main event and its supporting saints in a single glance.
According to the cathedral, the outer wing surfaces depict angels about to open doors. That imagery makes sense for a work with hinges: closed panels are not a blank cover. They prepare for the revelation of the risen Christ when the triptych opens. The cathedral specifically says those painted door wings allude to the Resurrection on the centre panel.
The page's splash cannot show both sides at once. The open view is useful for explaining Christ, guards and saints. The closed imagery has to be described from the cathedral's record. This is a case where the object's physical form—panels that can move—is part of its meaning. It is not simply one flat canvas divided decoratively into three stripes.
The panel-by-panel dimensions help preserve that fact. 138 × 98 cm belongs to the centre. 136 × 40 cm belongs to each wing. A reader comparing those numbers with the picture can see why the wings hold single standing figures and the middle has room for a larger crowd. The measurements describe the components rather than a hypothetical total width in an unspecified mounting position.
The painting's current conservation history
The cathedral's 27 January 2026 notice announced a substantial restoration of the triptych. It says technical monitoring found poor adhesion of the paint layer and cracks in the panels, making a larger intervention necessary. The team planned visual examination, scientific imaging and research into historical sources before tailoring treatment to the object.
These details deserve a dated account. They explain why a panel painting four centuries old cannot be treated as if its visible surface were beyond change. The painting is a material work whose wood, paint and environment need care. Restoration also offers an opportunity to study Rubens's technique more closely, as the cathedral notes.
The cathedral's object page currently says the triptych is off display during restoration, and the 2026 notice describes a photographic print filling its empty place. Such arrangements can change. An evergreen article should not promise that the work is on view or that the print will still be there when someone travels. A visitor should check the cathedral's current information before making a special trip.
The restoration notice describes the work as included on the Flemish Government's Masterpieces List since 2005. That recognition and the cathedral's conservation plans speak to its value in Antwerp's heritage. They do not alter the historical account of its initial commission. The triptych began as Moretus's epitaph, not as a modern museum masterpiece.
Reading the three panels together
Begin with John the Baptist on the left and Saint Martina on the right. Their quiet standing figures belong to the Moretus–Plantin memorial. Then turn to the centre, where Christ emerges from the tomb and guards scatter. The saints bracket the event; the event supplies the memorial's hope. This reading gives every visible panel a reason to be there.
At the centre, follow the direction of movement: the falling soldiers, Christ's rising body, the lifted cloth and the red banner. The painting draws the eye upward without losing the dark ground from which Christ emerges. The title The Resurrection of Christ is not only a label for the figure. It describes the action that organizes the entire composition.
Remember, too, the view that is absent from the illustration. When closed, angels on the outer wings gesture toward the opening that the viewer cannot yet see. The cathedral's description of those angels helps recover the work's original changing appearance and its relationship to an altar or memorial space.
This is Rubens's 1611–12 Resurrection of Christ for Jan Moretus's epitaph, commissioned by Martina Plantin for Antwerp Cathedral. It is oil on panel. The centre measures 138 × 98 cm, and each wing 136 × 40 cm. The open panels show Christ, guards, John the Baptist and Saint Martina; the closed exteriors bear angels alluding to the opening Resurrection. Its strong visual drama and its funerary purpose are inseparable.
Rubens artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
It belongs to the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. The cathedral has reported temporary removal for restoration, so current display should be checked with the church.
The cathedral says Martina Plantin commissioned it as an epitaph for Jan Moretus, erected in the cathedral choir.
The cathedral dates the triptych 1611–12 and identifies it as oil on panel.
The open wings show John the Baptist on the left and Saint Martina on the right. They are the patron saints associated with the Moretus–Plantin couple.
The cathedral says the outer faces show angels about to open door wings, alluding to the Resurrection revealed inside.
The centre panel is 138 × 98 cm; each wing is 136 × 40 cm. These are separate component measurements supplied by the cathedral.
The cathedral's January 2026 notice reports poor paint adhesion and cracks in the panels. Its project includes examination and research to plan treatment suited to the work.
Discussion
Look from John the Baptist across the rising Christ to Saint Martina.
Share an observation about the panels or a reliable source that adds to their history.
Reader Insights
How do the guards' reactions shape the centre panel's movement?
What do the patron saints add to this memorial for Jan Moretus?
How might the closed angels prepare a viewer for the opened triptych?
Join the Conversation
Add your reading below, keeping observations specific and evidence clear.
References
- Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Rubens, The Resurrection of Christ. View source
- Cathedral of Our Lady, 27 January 2026, restoration notice for the Moretus–Plantin epitaph. View source
