This was the first of several paintings by Manet with a religious theme. The inscription indicates Manet’s source, but the passage he cited describes Mary Magdalen’s finding Christ’s tomb empty except for the two angels. After the painting was already on its way to the 1864 Salon, Manet realized that he had made an even greater departure from the text: he depicted Christ’s wound on the wrong side. He wrote to Baudelaire of his mistake, and the critic instructed him to correct the position of the wound in the painting before the exhibition opening, adding, “take care not to give the malicious something to laugh at.”
via the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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