Laura Freeman Laura Freeman

Heaven and earth | 28 March 2018

Only the subtlest artists choose to include this still, small scene of calm after the horrors of the Passion in their Easter cycles

issue 31 March 2018

In Nicolas Poussin’s ‘Noli Me Tangere’ (1653) Christ stands with his heel on a spade. He appears, in his rough allotment smock and sandals, to be digging up carrots. In Abraham Janssens oil painting (c.1620), Christ strides among parsnips and pumpkins, cauliflowers and marrows. Mary Magdalene kneels in an artichoke bed.

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