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Noli Me Tangere

Miniature
1673-1680 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Miniature painting depicting Christ, standing at the left of the scene, raising his hand as Mary Magdalen leans forward to touch him. The scene is set in a landscape. In the left background is a view of the hill of Calvary and crucifixes; at centre are two figures; on the right is Christ's tomb, in which are two seated figures. Features of Christ in brown and sanguine finely hatched and blended; features of Mary more summarily hatched in brown with touches of grey in the eyes; both over a pale carnation ground; hair of Christ in pale brown wash, lined and hatched in darker colour; dress in grey-brown wash, modelled in darker colour and the lights in pale grey; cloak in pale orange wash, modelled in darker colour and some lights taken out; dress of Mary in strokes of crimson wash over the bare vellum; shirt in pale orange wash modelled in darker colour and shaded in grey; cloak in dark blue modelled with darker colour and the lights in pale blue-grey; background, figures in middle distance etc., washed and hatched summarily in transparent and opaque colours, some very gummy; a brown marginal strip; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: Ebony over oak with the inner part of the moulding gilt; the latter regilded in 1920.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleNoli Me Tangere (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book
Brief description
Miniature painting entitled 'Noli Me Tangere' by Nicholas Dixon after Hans Holbein the younger, watercolour on vellum, 1673-1680.
Physical description
Miniature painting depicting Christ, standing at the left of the scene, raising his hand as Mary Magdalen leans forward to touch him. The scene is set in a landscape. In the left background is a view of the hill of Calvary and crucifixes; at centre are two figures; on the right is Christ's tomb, in which are two seated figures. Features of Christ in brown and sanguine finely hatched and blended; features of Mary more summarily hatched in brown with touches of grey in the eyes; both over a pale carnation ground; hair of Christ in pale brown wash, lined and hatched in darker colour; dress in grey-brown wash, modelled in darker colour and the lights in pale grey; cloak in pale orange wash, modelled in darker colour and some lights taken out; dress of Mary in strokes of crimson wash over the bare vellum; shirt in pale orange wash modelled in darker colour and shaded in grey; cloak in dark blue modelled with darker colour and the lights in pale blue-grey; background, figures in middle distance etc., washed and hatched summarily in transparent and opaque colours, some very gummy; a brown marginal strip; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: Ebony over oak with the inner part of the moulding gilt; the latter regilded in 1920.
Dimensions
  • Height: 188mm
  • Width: 225mm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Content description
Scene depicting figures standing in a landscape, crucifixes on a hill in the left background.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
'Peter Oliver son of Isaac Oliver/ 1601-1660/ This is a copy of a picture by Holbein at Hampton Court Palace formerly 1 in the collection of Henry VIII Oliver made numerous copies of celebrated pictures/ for Charles I' (Inscribed on a label on the backboard of the frame)
Credit line
Given by Frederick Tessier, Esq.
Object history
Provenance: Presented to the Museum in May 1920 by Frederick Tessier Esq. of Brighton, who gave the following account of his acquisition of the miniature: 'I lived in Derbyshire some twenty-five years ago and walking through a neighbouring hamlet, Burnaston, I noticed a deserted hovel with an auction bill on it, walking in I saw the miniature lying on a table, it took my fancy and I sent a servant to buy it which he did for a few shillings, the place gave one the idea that at some time people in fair circumstances had lived there, but I made no enquiries, the frame is the original one.'
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Bibliographic reference
Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
P.68-1920

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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