The day of Easter or Resurrection, like others of the festive calendar, has in cities and towns of Navarre with rites and secular customs, around some playful celebrations of joy, which ended the austerities, privations, silences and sadness of Lent and Holy Week. We know that in the centuries of the Ancient Regime there were also pardons on the occasion of Christmas and Easter.

Let us see how our ancestors visualized that fact represented, sometimes, by the hand of OT prefigurations and, more frequently, in the successive scenes of the resurrection itself: the Marys before the empty tomb and the five variants of Christ coming out of the tomb, to end with the image of the risen Christ alone.

With this passage of the New Testament, the Resurrection was glossed with great fortune in the West. We must remember that the texts of the Gospels do not coincide in some aspects such as the issue of the Marys: St. John speaks of a holy woman: Mary of Magdala; St. Matthew names two: Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleophas; St. Mark counts three: Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James (Mary Cleophas) and Mary Salome and St. Luke adds to the two, an undetermined issue of women. Regarding the angels, there is also some divergence. John mentions none, Matthew and Mark refer to one, seated on the tomb, and Luke speaks of two men in dazzling garments.

In some cycles also appear, according to Emile Mâle, the Marys buying perfumes and myrrh to embalm the body of Christ, preserving it from the "bite of the worm", all following a scene popularized in the autos sacramentales.

In the East, the tomb appears in the form of a tugurium, cave or hut, while in the West, less familiar with the monuments of the Holy Land, the traditional sarcophagus is preferred. As for the soldiers, it should be remembered that they were introduced, unrelated to the Gospel texts, for apologetic reasons, to refute the accusation that the disciples had removed the body. Their issue is variable. They are usually lying down, with disparate reactions and with anachronistic weapons and clothing.

The figure of the Savior adopts different postures and positions with respect to the sarcophagus. In some occasions he is incorporated in it(Christus in sepulcro); in others, he rests one foot on the edge; in others, he passes his leg outside it(Christus uno pede extra sepulcrum); in others we find him standing in front of it(Christus extra sepulcrum) and, finally, we can also find him with his foot on the lid(Christus supra spulcrum).

Medieval art has left us such delicate and outstanding scenes in Navarre's heritage as those of the Romanesque doorway of San Miguel de Estella or the tympanum of the Holy Sepulchre of Estella and the reliquary of the Holy Sepulchre of the church of the capital of Navarre in the Gothic period. In painting we can emphasize the one of the bank of the altarpiece of Santa Elena of the parish of San Miguel de Estella.

From the Counter-Reformation onwards, Christ will not appear taking his leg out of the tomb. Moreover, not all the soldiers are asleep, at least one of them usually appears awake. Numerous reliefs and paintings of the Resurrection passage are found in various Renaissance altarpieces, often with schemes derived from the engravings of Dürer and later Cornelis Cort and other engravers.

Among the themes linked to the cycle of the Resurrection that does not appear in the Gospels is that of the apparition of Christ to his mother. As on other occasions in other stages of his life, particularly the Nativity, it was other texts, other literary sources that inspired a series of figurative compositions, with details and motifs very much to the taste of the people, always thirsty for images with which to learn and assimilate the mysteries of which they were told in the preaching. Those texts and the sacred theatrical representations were responsible for passages such as the one we are dealing with today.

The tradition that places Christ visiting his mother to announce his return to life is found in sources such as the Liber Virginitate of St. Ambrose in the second half of the fourth century, becoming popular at the end of the average Ages through other writings, especially the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony, known as the Carthusian, who greatly influenced St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Teresa of Jesus. The former considers the contemplation of this mystery in the fourth week of his Spiritual Exercises. Other authors of great projection treated the topic, as St. Vincent Ferrer or Sister Maria Jesus de Agreda, this one already, in plenary session of the Executive Council XVII century.

According to L. Réau, the topic of Christ's apparition to his mother, after the Resurrection, was represented in two ways: the first by appearing before a Mary who was praying in her chamber and the second with the presence of the patriarchs of the Old Testament, after descending into hell.

The first representations belong to the 15th century. Of great success was the version of Rogier Van der Weyden, made around 1443 commissioned by King John of Castile, which was given to the Charterhouse of Miraflores and today is in the Gemäldegalrie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The model was copied on several occasions, most notably the version by Juan de Flandes, a painter in the service of Isabella the Catholic, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

With the model of Mary alone in her house, in prayer, surprised by the Resurrected One, we have in Navarra a panel painted in the main altarpiece of the parish of Arre, work of Ramón de Oscáriz, made shortly before 1570. A Christ, somewhat paralyzed, blessing in a great cloud surprises his mother, under a canopy dressed in widow's headdresses and before a kneeler with his book that is sample when seeing him in a prayerful attitude. A version in a large relief can be seen in the main altarpiece of Santa María de Tafalla (Pedro González de San Pedro, 1581-1588) and another of lesser quality in Zabal.

Another more complicated pictorial composition, close to the second iconographic model , is found in the altarpiece of the Assumption of the monastery of Fitero, a work of Aragonese filiation made around 1590. On this occasion, we see a door in the lower zone, undoubtedly that of Christ's descent into limbo and some characters, among which Adam and Eve can be distinguished. It is a more evolved painting and of more dynamic outline than the one of Arre, of Aragonese filiation, colorist and romanist at the same time, as it corresponds to the last decades of the XVI century. The figure of Christ stands out, intentionally showing his wounds, with the red mantle and the agitated banderole, with the head bordered by the three powers of the soul report, understanding and will-, associated to the Trinity. St. Bonaventure in the pathway of the mind towards God considers the report as the image of the Father, the understanding proper to the image of the Son and the will as proper to the Holy Spirit.

Contrary to what might be expected in Christian circles, where the Resurrection of Christ is the great feast par excellence, there are hardly any representations of the topic the Risen Christ.

If we compare the issue of images of Christ triumphant on the day of his Resurrection with those of the different steps of his passion, especially with the crucified ones, we observe, immediately, that we hardly find, among our rich patrimony, copies of the first ones. It could be said that they are reduced to a few, in very specific cases. The absence of processional carvings can be explained by the presence in the Easter processions of Christ in the Sacred Form, in the Eucharist, inside sumptuous ostensories. The real presence of the Savior in the Sacred Form made his iconographic representations unnecessary. In the processions of the meeting, the image of the Virgin of sculpture or dress is present, but not that of Christ, because it is replaced by the Eucharist carried under a canopy.

Among the images that have been preserved, we can distinguish several types. In the first place, in some parishes whose invocation is the Savior. For this reason, the sculpture of the Risen Christ, half-naked, with his red cloak enveloping presides over the areas of their temples. This is the case, among others, in the main altarpiece of Azagra, the work of Francisco San Juan from Tudela, from the beginning of the 18th century. From the old parish of Salvador de Tudela, an expressive image from the second third of the 16th century has been saved. In Arróniz, the late Gothic sculpture of the former patron saint of the parish is found in the Baroque altarpiece of the Virgin of the Rosary. Other variants of the topic are found in the centuries of the Baroque, in Sangüesa or Izalzu, with the figure of Christ dressed in tunic and cape, carrying the cross naked.

As an exceptional piece we must point out the Resurrected Christ of the main altarpiece of the parish of Santa María de Tafalla, the work of Juan de Anchieta and his disciple Pedro González de San Pedro. In this last case we find the image of the Risen Christ, in one of the most genuine representations, which copies with enough fidelity the one of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva of Rome, work of Michelangelo. Both in this example of Tafalla, as in the main altarpiece of Andosilla, the Herculean figure of Christ with his cross, appears victorious over sin -represented by a serpent or dragon- and death, represented by a skull.

It should be noted that the figure of the Risen Christ also had its place in some Holy Thursday monuments, as was the case in the cathedral of Pamplona, where a large 18th century image was displayed, the work of the Ontañón family, sculptors of Cantabrian origin established in the capital of Navarre. Apparently, the image was placed, on Easter Sunday, in the place where the Eucharistic urn was located a few days before.

The greater presence of the Risen Christ in the altarpieces is centered on the doors of the tabernacles and to a lesser extent on the expositors, in order to emphasize and insist on his real presence in the Eucharist reserved inside them. It is there, on the doors of the tabernacles, where the gouges of the sculptors and the incarnations of the polychromators took great care. Firstly because of its symbolic significance in the Eucharistic reservation and secondly because it was a piece that was very close to the eyes of those who contemplated the celebration. Let us highlight those of Roncal, Legaria or the monastery of Oliva -today in Tafalla-.

There are also a few altarpieces dedicated to the Risen Christ, such as those in Mendigorría, the basilica of Los Remedios and El Milagro in Luquin or the parish church of Miranda de Arga.