Resurrection

Juan B. Celma introduced Mannerism into the cathedral, demonstrating his knowledge of Italian painting in a commission for five panels. These works were to be placed in the apse area, closing off the Main Chapel towards the ambulatory. The larger themes, as in the case of this work, would have been located on the outside, facing the ambulatory. This is the only one of the five panels that has survived, representing a fragment of The Resurrection on one side and The Adoration of the Magi on the other.

In particular, this composition shows the lower part of The Resurrection: the soldiers are sleeping and guarding the tomb, on the front of which can be seen, twice, a kind of number four. This shape seems to evoke the J with which Celma begins his signature, which is usual for this artist, who seeks to relate his work to his own person. The legs of Jesus, with the marks of the nails in his feet, are already reincorporated.