Noli me tangere.

Narrative and Iconic Space

323

NOLI ME TANGERE. NARRATIVE AND ICONIC SPACE

Barbara Baert
Jerusalem can be considered as a Jerusalem of the holy places, narrated
and translocated; the Jerusalem of pilgrimscross relics, dust and sweat,
stones and pockets; the Jerusalem of the events in caves, the events described on parchment, sung on the streets, events that have sunken away
in a collective amnesia. It might also be considered as a Jerusalem of emptiness, of the untouchable, a city that holds a soul that yearns and reaches
out for everything intangible. Is not Jerusalems very core a black hole, the
Holy Sepulchrean absence? Yes, indeed!
The gospels all relate the story of Christs death and his coming back
from the dead, the empty grave and the resurrection. The resurgence from
death to life takes place in the middle of the night, at a specified place that
the Christian tradition would enshrine as its deepest mystery in its literary,
visual and material culture. In the Gospel of John, however, the tale of death
and resurrection is supplied with a remarkable motif: the Noli me tangere.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to
look into the tomb; / and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the
body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. /
They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They
have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him./
When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but
she did not know that it was Jesus. / Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you
weeping? For whom are you looking? Supposing him to be the gardener,
she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have
laid him, and I will take him away. / Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned
and said to him in Hebrew, Rabbouni! [which means Teacher]. / Jesus said
to her, Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God. 18 Mary Magdalene went and an* The article was written in the context of the international research project Mary
Magdalene and the Touching of Jesus. An Intradisciplinary and Interdisciplinary
Investigation of the Interpretation of John 20, 17 in Exegesis, Iconography and Pastoral
Care, of the Fundings for Scientific Research-Flanders (2004-2009), which involves the
researchers Barbara Baert, Reimund Bieringer, Karlijn Demasure and Ine Van Den Eynde.
I am obliged to our scientific stafff member Liesbet Kusters.

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nounced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord; and she told them that he
had said these things to her. (John 20:11-18)1

My purpose in this essay is to understand how a forbidden touch can

act as a pars pro toto for the spatial meaning of Jerusalem and its place
in Medieval Salvation History. For this purpose, I have developed three
methodological sections. In the first section, Navel, I will look at the
iconographical representation and the use of symbolic language. I will
analyse how a Jerusalem of the empty grave and of the Magdalene is
anchored in its spatiality, beginning with the earliest examples in art
history. In the second part of this text, entitled Rupture, I will compare
the textual and visual features in the Noli me tangere in order to gain
insight into the medium specificity of the Noli me tangere in word and
image. In this section, new insights will arise out of the interdisciplinary
collaborations between exegesis and art history. The heart of the textimage comparison presents a more structural reading of considering,
forming and interpreting the spatial in Noli me tangere. In the third section,
Thresholds, I add a case-study of the Florentine Noli me tangere by Puccio
di Simone in Santa Trinit. In this last section, insights are positioned in
their historical relevance and situated in the medieval reception of the
Noli me tangere.
I.Navel. Noli me Tangere, The Empty Grave and the Tree
How does Noli me tangere define Jerusalem, and which image of Jerusalem
is presented in text and image? Our question cannot be detached from the
actual contextthe death and resurrection of Christand the very moment captured in iconographythe appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene. Verse 17 contains an important complexityNoli me tangereand
its impact on the fine arts has been commensurate.2 The original Greek
1NRSV text.
2For the iconographic corpus, see Gertrud Schiller: Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst,
vol. III: Die Auferstehung und Erhhung Christi, Gtersloh 1971, pp. 88-98; Marilena Mosco:
La Maddalena tra Sacro e Profano. Da Giotto a De Chirico, Florence 1986, pp. 135-145, considers
examples from the 16th century; Lilia Sebastiani: Transfigurazione. Il personaggio evangelico
di Maria di Magdala e il mito dell peccatrice redenta nella tradizione occidentale, Brescia
1992, p. 240, erroneously claims that the Noli me tangere possesses an iconography that does
not change; Susan Haskins: Mary Magdalen. Myth and Metaphor, London 1993, presents a
Wirkungsgeschichte of the figure, with attention to the visual arts, but does not discuss Noli
me tangere iconography. Lexcs des images, Lapparition Marie-Madeleine, ed. by Marianne
Alphant/Guy Lafon/Daniel Arasse, Paris 2001, pp. 79-126, offfers aesthetic considerations of

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texts read: Me mou haptou.3 The Greek verb haptein is the most general
verb for touching, but also means to approach, to be in contact with
something or someone or to touch emotionally (both in a friendly and in
an inimical way). The connotation to grasp, to cling or to clutch is not
found in the biblical occurrences of this verb. The Vulgate rendered Me
mou haptou as Noli me tangere. Even though the Latin verb tangere also
has a broad spectrum of meanings (including to enter or reach a place),
Noli me tangere has definitely been understood along the lines of tactility
in the West. The prohibition of touching has been the starting point of a
long visual tradition that is characterised by that fascinating, condensed,
almost frozen energy, which narrates the Jerusalem of the empty grave,
the victory over death and the final union of Son and Father. I will develop
two Ottonian examples which are considered to be the oldest of an unquestioned Noli me tangere motif: the Codex Egberti and the famous Hildesheim doors.

the Titianesque Noli me tangere; Diana Apostolos-Cappadonna: In search of Mary Magdalene.

Images and Traditions, New York 2002, also considers later examples of the Noli me tangere.
Jean Luc Nancy: Noli me tangere. Essai sur la leve du corps, Paris 2003, presents a theologicalphilosophical discourse on the Noli me tangere as paradox. In Barbara Baert: Touching with
the Gaze. A Visual Analysis of the Noli me tangere, in: Noli me tangere. Mary Magdalene.
One Person, Many Images, ed. by Barbara Baert/Reimund Bieringer/Karlijn Demasure/
Sabine Van den Eynde, exhibition catalogue, Leuven 2006, pp. 43-52, aspects of the
relationship between text and image are confronted with exegesis. In Barbara Baert: Noli
me tangere. Six Exercises in Image Theory and Iconophilia, in: Image and Narrative, 15,
2007 [online journal, http://www.imageandnarrative.be/iconoclasm/baert.htm], the notion
of the gaze in the Noli me tangere is explored from the perspective of image theory. The
following monographs have not been published: Anna Trotzig: Christus Resurgens Apparet
Mariae Magdalena. En ikonografisk studie med tonvikt pa motivets framstllning in den tidiga
medeltidens konst (Ph.D. diss., Stockholm, 1973), Stockholm 1973 and Magdalene LaRow:
The Iconography of Mary Magdalene. The Evolution in Western Tradition until 1300 (Ph.D.
diss., New York University, 1982), New York 1982; Maja Lehmann: Die Darstellungen des Noli
me tangere in der italienischen Kunst vom 12. bis ins 16. Jahrhundert. Eine ikonographische
Studie (Ph.D. diss., s.l., 1988), s.l. 1988; Carmen Lee Robertson: Gender relations and the Noli
me tangere scene in Renaissance Italy (Ph.D. diss., University of Victoria, Ottawa, 1993),
Ottawa 1993. With the authors permission, we were able to consult: Lisa Marie Rafanelli:
The Ambiguity of Touch. Saint Mary Magdalene and the Noli me Tangere in Early Modern
Italy (Ph.D. diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 2004), New York 2004. Ulrike Tarnow:
Noli me tangere: zur Problematik eines visuellen Topos und seiner Transformationen im
Cinquecento, in: Topik und Tradition. Prozesse der Neuordnung von Wissensberlieferungen
des 13. bis 17. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Thomas Frank, Gttingen 2007, pp. 209-225, is a recent
semiotic reading of the Titian Noli me tangere.
3For an overview of diffferent exegetical interpretations of this phrase, see Reimund
Bieringer: Noli me tangere en het Nieuwe Testament, in: Noli me tangere. Mary Magdalene.
One Person, Many Images, ed. by Barbara Baert et al., Leuven 2006, pp. 16-28.

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The Codex Egberti (Reichenau, c. 977-993), depicting the encounter

between Christ and Mary Magdalene, illustrates the text of John 20:11-18 on
the preceding folio 9 (fig. 1).4 The epigraphy refers to Mary as she is mentioned in John 20:16.5 The composition of the miniature in the Egberti Codex
is divided in the middle by a slender tree. On the left is a simple representation of the tomb: an angel holding a stafff at each end of an empty sarcophagus.6 The winding sheet lies in the hollow of the tomb. The angels
are watching and point toward both Christ and Mary Magdalene. Their
function in the miniature is deictic: they split up and guide our gaze to
the core of the depicted events, namely the secretive contact between Mary
Magdalene and Christ. Mary Magdalene kneels near the tree-trunk, her
arms extended in the direction of Christs feet. Christ inclines toward Mary
Magdalene and points to her. In his left hand he holds a book; he is the
Logos. Mary Magdalenes bowing pose derives from the prototype of the
Noli me tangere in early Christian and Carolingian art, namely the Chairete,
wherein the women at the Sepulchre took hold of Jesus feet (Matthew
29:9), as in the lost Apostle sarcophagus (fig. 2).7 When we see Mary
4Trier, Stadtbibliothek, cod. 24, fol. 91; Hubert Schiel: Codex Egberti der Stadtbibliothek
Trier, Basel 1960; Franz J. Ronig: Erluterungen zu den Miniaturen des Egbert Codex, in:
Der Egbert Codex. Das Leben Jesu. Ein Hhepunkt der Buchmalerei vor 1000 Jahren, Stuttgart
2005, pp. 78-188.
5However, in this period, Mary was already understood as a conflation of diffferent
women mentioned in the gospels. In his sermon of September 21, 591, in the church of San
Clemente in Rome, Gregory the Great (560-604) identified Mary (Magdalene) as the sinner
in Luke 7:36-50 for the first time. Gregorius Magnus: Homiliae in Evangelia, ed. by Raymond
Etaix (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 141), Turnhout 1999, hom. 33. The Venerable
Bede (672-735) adds the sister of Lazarus to this cluster; Beda Venerabilis: In Marci
Evangelium expositio, in: Bedae Venerabilis Opera pars II: Opera exegetica, vol. III, ed. by
David Hurst (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 120), Turnhout 1960, p. 606; Beda
Venerabilis: In Lucae Evangelium expositio, in: Bedae Venerabilis Opera pars II: Opera
exegetica, vol. III, ed. by David Hurst (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 120), Turnhout
1960, p. 413: Maria Magdalene ipsa est soror Lazari. Bede calls the sinner in Luke meretrix
(and she is now also understood as the woman in the Noli me tangere).
6It would be possible to read a convention which recalls the Holy of Holies (as for
instance the Arc of the Covenant) in the symmetric position of the angels near the grave.
I thank Anastasia Keshman for this suggestion.
7Matthew 28:8-10. The encounter between Christ and a single Mary (Magdalene) does
not occur before 850. Before the middle of the 9th century, the story of the Resurrection
was depicted by showing the myrrhophores near the tomb, on the one hand, and/or Christs
appearance to two myrrhophores, the Chairete on the other hand. The essential question
is thus whether or not the particular passage in John was initially suppressed, and why. Lisa
Marie Rafanelli 2004 (as in n. 1) holds the opinion that the passage was deliberately neglected
in the visual arts. The myrrhophores and the Chairete would ultimately provide the basic
characteristics of later Noli me tangere iconography. An exception would be a disputable
Noli me tangere on the so-called Brivio capsella (a silver reliquary) from the early Christian

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Fig. 1.Noli me tangere, miniature from the Codex Egberti, Reichenau, c. 977-993. Trier,
Stadtbibliothek, Cod. 24, fol. 91r

Fig. 2.Chairete, detail of the lost, so-called Apostle Sarcophagus, c. 400, known from a
17th-century engraving in Antonio Bosio, Roma Sotterranea, 1651 and Paolo Aringhi, Roma
subterranea novissima, 1659 (facsimile)

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Magdalenes pose integrated in the context of Noli me tangere, and in

combination with Christs body language, however, it takes on a diffferent
emotional meaning, which can be read as a response to the prohibition to
touch.8
The fragility of the tree is in perfect balance with the subtlety of the
frozen psychological drama between the miniatures four characters. The
tree has a multitude of functions. First, it divides the narrative episodes.
This is also clearly the case in the sober scene featuring the Chairete on the
wooden door of Santa Sabina (c. 432) in Rome, where each of the three
figures is separated from the others by a tree with big leaves (fig. 3).9 The
tree will indeed continue to form a significant component of the Noli me
tangere, as for example in the medallion of the Shrine of Our Lady of
Tournai, c. 1215 (fig. 4). Second, the tree is also a narrative index. It is pars
pro toto for the setting of the garden in which the event takes place.10 But
on a third level the tree evokes paradise, bringing together the Tree of Life
and the Tree of Knowledge.11 In the context of Mary Magdalene, the tree
period, and preserved in Paris, Muse du Louvre; see Galit Noga-Banai: The Trophies of the
Martyrs. An Art Historical Study of Early Christian Silver Reliquaries, Oxford 2008, pp. 38-61,
fig. 3.
8In his Giotto and the Language of Gesture, Moshe Barasch describes the creation of
Noli me tangere as a particular example of energetic inversion. Energetic inversion is the
power of attraction that a gesturenatural or conventionalis capable of exerting over
the collective memory of humanity, even to the degree that it becomes a formal-artistic
recipient for various emotions and their shifting interpretations across the history of art.
In the history of gesture, the Noli me tangere constitutes an unusually powerful force field.
Moshe Barasch: Giotto and the Language of Gesture, Cambridge 1987, p. 170.
9Gisela Jeremias: Die Holztr der Basilika S. Sabina in Rom, Tbingen 1980, passim;
Haskins 1993 (as in n. 1), p. 62, fig. 11.
10Ezekiel describes the Tree of Life as a cosmic tree laden with countless fruit in the
navel (omphalos/nucleus) of the world (31:3-10). As axis of the world, or axis mundi, the tree
supports time and space, and is transferred by the early fathers of the church to Christ, the
Messiah. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) says that the Tree of Life is Logos: the word
becomes flesh: Stromata V, II, 72, 2; Stephen Jerome Reno: The Sacred Tree as an Early
Christian Literary Symbol. A Phenomenological Study (Forschungen zur Anthropologie und
Religionsgeschichte, 4), Saarbrcken 1978, p. 106.
11Tertullian (c. 160-c. 240) formulates the opposition between the two trees in his
Adversus Iudaeos as an idea fundamental to salvation. He finds that what we have lost
through Adam is regained through the wood of the cross of Christ; Reno 1978 (as in n. 9),
p. 165. The lignum of the cross must rewrite the lignum of Genesis; Gregory T. Armstrong:
The Cross in the Old Testament. According to Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem and the
Cappodocian Father, in: Theologia CrucisSignum Crucis. Festschrift fr Erich Dinklers zum
70. Geburtstag, ed. by Gnter Klein, Tbingen 1978, pp. 17-38, p. 17; Gertrud Hhler: Die
Bume des Lebens. Baumsymbole in den Kulturen der Menschheit, Stuttgart 1985, p. 115; Marion
Leathers and Paul Grimley Kuntz: The Symbol of the Tree Interpreted in the Context of
Other Symbols of Hierarchical Order, the Great Chain of Being and Jacobs Ladder, in: Jacobs

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Fig. 3.Chairete, detail on the wooden doors, 431/432. Rome, Santa Sabina

Fig. 4.Noli me tangere, medallion on the Shrine of Our Lady, 1205. Tournai, Cathedral

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clarifies the typological connection to Eve. In his Sermo 229L, Augustine

elaborates on the theme of the Fall and the weaker sex: Eve was the first
to lose God in paradise and Mary Magdalene is thus the first to seek Him
with greater desire after His death. Petrus Chrysologus (d. 450 c.) expresses this typology as follows (Sermo 74:3 and Sermo 77:4,7): the Tree of
Knowledge aroused Eves desire; the tomb of Christ aroused the desire of
Mary Magdalene. In the Codex Egberti, the tree surpasses its naturalistic
dimension: it is neither green, nor brown, but almost immaterially rendered
in shades of white, thereby referring to the clothing of the angels and Christ.
In this Noli me tangere, the tree seems to be a reflection of the Logos. The
suggestively crosswise-draped leaves enforce the association with Christ
and his death on the cross.
Our second example, the Noli me tangere on the bronze gates of Bishop
Bernward (993-1022) of the Church of Saint Michael in Hildesheim (10081015), goes even further in its attempts to develop advanced typological
thinking. The scene is the final episode taken from biblical history and is
located in the upper register of the right door (fig. 5). The scene contrasts
with the first scene in the cycle at the top left: the Creation of Eve.12 The
composition of the Noli me tangere is dominated by Christ, who holds a
banner in his left hand. With his right palm he points toward Mary
Magdalene, who almost reaches out to Christ in proskynesis.13 To the left
is a bush-like tree with an eagle. To the right of Christ is a gate, suggesting
a city, and the same bush, this time accompanied by two eagles with spread
wings. Again, the figure of Mary Magdalene may refer to the archaic type
of the Chairete.
The trees are actually fruit-bearing grapevines, a well-known symbol for
the sacrificial death of Christ.14 From Late Antiquity onward, the eagle is
Ladder and the Tree of Life. Concepts of Hierarchy and the Great Chain of Being, ed. by Marion
Leathers/Paul Grimley Kuntz, New York/Paris 1987, pp. 319-334.
12Hubert Schrade: Zu dem Noli me tangere der Hildesheimer Bronzetr, in: Westfalen.
Hefte fr Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde, 39 (3), 1961, pp. 211-214; Ursula Storm: Die
Bronzetren Bernwards zu Hildesheim (Ph.D. diss., Freie Universitt, Berlin, 1966), Berlin
1966; Ursula Mende: Die Bronzetren des Mittelalters, 800-1200, Munich 1983.
13Proskynesis is a frequently recurring motif in Byzantine art; see Anthony Cutler:
Transfigurations. Studies in the Dynamics of Byzantine Iconography, Pennsylvania 1975,
pp. 59-64.
14On the central panel of the 10th-century ivory triptych from Harbaville (Paris, Louvre),
a cross is duplicated in the form of two identical trees. The trees are surrounded by a
vineyard: on the left, the vineyard bears flowers and fruit; on the right, it is barren. The
crowns of the two trees meet at the intersection of the cross. This means that the Tree of
Life and the Tree of Knowledge are united in this synthetic cross. Gregory of Nyssa (335-394)
therefore says that the cross is an arbor mixtus. Gregory of Nyssa, in: Patrologia Latina, 44,

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Fig. 5.Noli me tangere, detail on the doors of Bernward of Hildesheim, 1008-1015. Hildesheim,
Church of St. Michael

seen as a symbol of victory, apotheosis and the ascension.15 The eagle on

Mary Magdalenes side is passive; the eagles on the side of Christ are active,
depicted in heavenward flight. In the bronze panel, the humble inertia of
Maria Magdalene is combined with the rising of Christ. Christ appears on
a schematically represented mountain. One of His feet is lower than the

ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Paris 1847, p. 179; Gabrielle Dufour-Kowalska: Larbre de vie et
la Croix. Essai sur limagination visionnaire, intr. by Jeanne Hersch, Geneva 1985, p. 64,
fig. 18.
15The eagle is a creature of the sun; Manfred Lurker: s.v. Adler, in: Wrterbuch der
Symbolik, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 6-7. The eagle is also the attribute of John the evangelist.

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other, again expressing the dynamics and the point at which His departure
must take place.16
In the Museo Arcivescovile in Ravenna, there is a marble reliquary from
the fifth century that shows a comparable scene (fig. 6).17 The Chairete
kneel longingly before Christ. His right foot is on elevated ground.18 Christ
carries the banner as a reference to His victory over death. The manus Dei
appears from above and lifts His arm. A field of tension is created with
Christ at the centre of two contradictory movements: the womenor
earthly lifegrasp at Him, while God bears Him away to His heavenly
destination.
On the bronze door of Bernward, Christ moves with a similar, though
less explicit, dynamic. As a result, the viewer recognizes in the figure of
Christ the suggestion of the impending Assumption. Replacing the conventional spade, the banner emphasizes the triumph of Christs Resurrection. The gate behind Christ is probably not intended to represent the
Holy Sepulchre, as this would go against the normal logic of reading (from
left to right).19 Does this architecture instead refer to the place where Christ
is going, the heavenly Jerusalem? On the marble relief in Ravenna, a similar architecture appears on the right hand side. The heavenly Jerusalem
springs from the injunction against touch. The Noli me tangere opens the
door to the Last Things.20 So, whenever the last scene on the bronze doors
has been seen, the doors may open and admit the viewer to that heavenly
Jerusalem that is the Church of Saint Michael itself.

16Andrea Worm: Steine und Fuspuren Christi auf dem lberg. Zu zwei ungewhnlichen
Motiven bei Darstellungen der Himmelfahrt Christi, in: Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte, 66,
2003, pp. 297-320.
17Renato Baroccini: Una Capsella Marmorea Cristiana rinvenuta in Ravenna, in: Felix
ravenna, 2, 1930, p. 21.
18When Christ assumes this pose in Carolingian models, it is exclusively in the context
of the Assumptionfor example on the ivory by Master Liuthard (mid 9th century) now
in Weimar. The legs and feet on the ivory are depicted as if in a vacuum, and Christ is located
in the untouchable sacrality of the mandorla; see also Schrade 1961 (as in n. 11), p. 213, fig.
76.
19Rafanelli 2004 (as in n. 1) does not mention the building; Schrade refers to the Holy
Sepulchre, Schrade 1961 (as in n. 11), p. 213.
20Ephraim (306-337) calls the mystery of the Resurrection the Last Now; Hubert
Schrade: Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst. Die Sinngehalte und Gestaltungsformen, vol.
I:. Die Auferstehung Christi, Berlin 1932, p. 41; Barbara Baert: Imagining the Mystery. The
Resurrection and the Visual Medium During the Middle Ages, in: Resurrection in the New
Testament. Festschrift J. Lambrecht, ed. by Reimund Bieringer/Veronica Koperski/Bianca
Lataire, Leuven 2002, pp. 483-506.

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Fig. 6.Chairete, detail of a marble relief, early 5th century. Ravenna, Museo Arcivescovile

Noli me tangere is concerned with Christs departure and Mary Magdalenes need to find the strength to let Him go. Medieval and early modern
exegesis, on the authority of Augustine (354-430), accepts that Noli me
tangere is an explicit statement of the transformation of the belief in Christ
as a human being into the belief in Christ as God.21 This was also elaborated on in the influential Cluny-sermo. The Sermo, written between c.
923-934 and also known as the In veneratione Maria Magdalenae, was a
critical phase in the new personality formation of Mary Magdalene.22 The
sermon was read on July 22, the feast-day of Mary Magdalene, and influenced hymns,23 lauds and dramaturgical rites, as in the phrase Quem
queritis in sepulchro, o Christicole (Who do you seek in the grave, O follow-

21Sermo 246 and his Epistola 120; Roland J. Teshe/Boniface Ramsey: Letters 100-155,
London 2003, pp. 129-140, p. 137. This line of reasoning was followed in Epistula 50 by Paulinus
of Nola (355431); Paulinus Nolanus: Epistulae. Paulinus von Nola (Fontes Christiani, 25, 3),
ed. by Matthias Skeb, Freiburg 1998, pp. 1042-1075, p. 1067.
22Sermo in Veneratione Sanctae Mariae Magdalenae, in: Patrologia Latina, 133, ed. by
Jacques-Paul Migne, Paris 1953, coll. 713-721; Victor Saxer: Un manuscrit dcembr du sermon
dEtudes de Cluny sur Ste. Marie-Madeleine, in: Scriptorium, 8, 1954, pp. 119-123; Dominique
Iogna-Prat: Bienheureuse polysmie. La Madeleine du Sermo in veneratione Sanctae Mariae
Magdalenae attribu Odon de Cluny (Xe sicle), in: Marie Madeleine dans la mystique, les
arts et les letters. Actes du colloque international Avignon 20-21-22 juillet 1988, ed. by Eve
Duperray/Georges Dubuy, Paris 1989, pp. 21-31; Dominique Iogna-Prat: La Madeleine du
Sermo in veneratione sanctae Mariae Magdalenae attribu Odon de Cluny, in: Mlanges
de lcole franaise de Rome. Moyen ge, 104 (1), 1992, pp. 37-79.
23Josef Szvrfffy: Peccatrix Quondam Femina. A Survey of the Mary Magdalen Hymns,
in: Traditio, 19, 1963, pp. 79-146, p. 86: the earliest hymns arose in the 10th and 11th centuries
in Burgundy, Bourges and southern Germany (where our Ottonian manuscripts were also
created); p. 92: the most important key words in the hymn are peccatrix, collega apostolorum,
soror apostolorum, meretrix impudica, Maria poenitens, spona, amica Dei, fons.

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ers of Christ).24 The connection between the sinner and the witness to the
Resurrection that arose with Gregory the Great was now elaborated on in
all its implications. Mary Magdalenes tears of remorse form the necessary
tabula rasa for what she achieves in the Noli me tangere. In the injunction
against touch, she recognizes the assimilation of Father and Son and becomes the first proclaimer of the Church, a church fragrant as the scent of
her balsam.25 Mary Magdalenes remorse is the necessary precondition for
the revolution in the history of salvation after the Fall. According to the
influential Sermo, the Noli me tangere is thus the ultimate goal of the revelation, of the insightthe salutifera doctrinaattained by means of
penitence and inner remorse.26 The fact that the scene is on the final
panel of the cycle in the bronze doors opposite the Creation of Eve, casts
Noli me tangere as the completion of salvation history, and, moreover,
interprets this cyclical completion in the light of female protagonism and
insight.
The Codex Egberti and the Hildesheim doors show how the Noli me tangere, from early examples in the visual arts onward, must be interpreted
against the background of the historical Jerusalem of the empty tomb, but
also against the background of a symbolically represented Jerusalem (the
tree, eagles, the gate and the mountain) where Son and Father are reunited. As a result, the narrative space of Noli me tangere is a place where
Salvation history becomes a perfect circle: the coming of the Son of God
and the return of the Son to his Father. Therefore, Noli me tangere involves
incarnation. In fact, the connection to the Incarnation was understood and
recognized in commentaries on John 3:13: No man hath ascended into
heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in
24Known from a Limoges manuscript dating to c. 923-934; Karl Young: The Drama of
the Medieval Church, Oxford 1933. The text in question is a dialogue (p. 202) Iesum Nazarenum
crucifixum, o caelicolae (Jesus, the Nazarene, the crucified, o angels). Non est hic, surrexit
sicut praedixerat; ite, nuntiate quia surrexit de sepulchre (He is not here, He is risen, as He
predicted; go and announce that He has risen from the grave). The content is derived from
Matthew 28:5-10, Mark 16:5-7 and Luke 24:4-6. The dialogue form is inspired by choir songs
from contemporary liturgy (pp. 203-204). The version in its original form is the text described
above, which occurs in a manuscript in Sankt Gallen and dates to the middle of the 10th
century (pp. 204-205). With thanks to Isabelle Vanden Hove.
25For a feminist reading of this role of the Magdalene, see Claudia Setzer: Excellent
Women. Female Witness to the Resurrection, in: Journal of Biblical Literature, 116 (2), 1997,
pp. 259-272.
26Dominique Iogna-Prat 1992 (as in n. 21), p. 56; in the mass of July 22, one prays to be
able to see the majesty of Christ-Sol. The internal pain is necessary for achieving and
disseminating personal salvation.

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heaven. In the Ottonian Codex Aureus from Nrnberg, this was paraphrased in the context of the Ascension passage into: God has received
this man to himself, whom he had taken from the Virgin.27 The idea of the
Ascension, the return to the Father to complete incarnation, is moreover
clearly included in the text and image tradition of Noli me tangere (Since
I am not yet returned to my Father, John 20, 17b).
Noli me tangere is a temporal standstill; a spatial navel where the creation
of the word and the flesh touch. In that sense, it is at least remarkable that
around the year 1160 John of Wrzburg describes among others the omphalos near the Holy Sepulchre, marked in the pavement with two circles,
and he refers to it as the exact physical place where after the resurrection
the Lord is said to have appeared to Blessed Mary Magdalene, and the place
is much venerated.28 According to this pilgrim, it is the same navel where
Joseph of Arimethea washed the body of Christ, and where Christ descended into hell. As such, Noli me tangere embodies a vertical movement,
it expresses an axial energy in space. This was often emphasized by not
only the body language of the ascending Christ, but also, indeed, by the
central tree.
In the next section, I will examine how the Jerusalem of the gospel (the
tomb and Resurrection), on the one hand, and the Jerusalem of iconography (the compositional language and the symbolic language of ascension
and heavenly Jerusalem), on the other hand, relate to medium-specific
spatial treatment in the Noli me tangere.
II.Rupture. The Pact between Place, Gaze, Movement and Time
The visual medium has its own conventions, transferring the literary source
into the realm of sight. It develops its own tradition, its own models, disconnecting itself to some extent from the literary prototype. These diffferences, and this process of transformation between word and image, also
touch upon our concern with the spatial perceptions of Noli me tangere.
Below, I will try to define this spatial perception in the textual, on the one
hand, and in the visual, on the other, by focussing on the concepts of gaze,
movement and time.
27Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nrnberg, ms. 156142/KG 1136, fol. 112r. Robert
Deshman: Another Look at the Disappearing Christ. Corporeal and Spiritual Vision in Early
Medieval Images, in: The Art Bulletin, 79, 1997, pp. 518-546, p. 523, n. 25.
28John Wilkinson/Joyce Hill/W. F. Ryan: Jerusalem Pilgrimage. 1099-1185, London 1988,
p. 244.

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In his recent exegetical study They have taken away my Lord. TextImmanent Repetitions and Variations in John 20:1-18, Reimund Bieringer
analysed the linguistic frequency and intensity of words for seeing.29 The
verb parakypt or inclinasset (inspect, bending over 20:5,11) forms a
Klammer, a link between the verbs of movement and the verbs of seeing.
Verbs of seeing proper are blep: noticing the empty tomb (20:1,5), there
to observe something with continuity and attention, often with the implication that what is observed is something unusual is used for looking
carefully at the gardener (20:6,12,14) and hora (esp. perfect: heraka) is
seeing the risen Christ with the eyes of faith (20:8,18). Hora expresses a
seeing that transcends the mere physical seeing to a seeing with the eyes
of faith and thus forms the climax of the pericope.30 Unfortunately, in the
Vulgatethe main version for medieval artists and their patronsthese
three terms for sight were all translated with the verb videre, which means
a significant loss of the nuances in Johns authentic Greek text. Nevertheless
it remains clear that the verb of seeing, in view of its frequency, is very
significant.
If we look at the iconography of Noli me tangere, we notice how the importance of seeing is well recognized, but transformed according to the possibilities and limits of image-language. In contrast to everyday life,
eye-contact in the world of the image is never a matter of coincidence. In
iconography, glances do not meet accidentally, but they are governed by
the semantics of the transmission of knowledge and love.31 The Noli me
tangere of the gospel of Otto III (Reichenau, 998-1000) involves these aspects of the eye-contact between Mary Magdalene and Christ (fig. 7).32 The
29Reimund Bieringer: They have taken away my Lord. Text-Immanent Repetitions
and Variations in John 20:1-18, in: Repetitions and Variations in the Fourth Gospel. Style, Text,
Interpretation, ed. by Gilbert Van Belle (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum
Lovaniensium, 223), Leuven 2009, pp. 609-630.
30Ibid., p. 10; Joost Smit Sibinga: Towards Understanding the Composition of John 20,
in: The Four Gospels 1992. Festschrift Frans Neirynck, vol. III, ed. by Frans Van Segbroeck et
al., Leuven 1992, pp. 2139-2152, p. 2139. On the intensity of seeing and its relationship to
believing, see G. L. Phillips: Faith and Vision in the Fourth Gospel, in: Studies in the Fourth
Gospel, ed. by Frank Leslie Cross, London 1957, pp. 83-96, pp. 91-92.
31Jan Bremmer: Walking, Standing, and Sitting in Ancient Greek Culture, in: A Cultural
History of Gesture, ed. by Jan Bremmer/Herman Roodenburg, New York 1993, pp. 15-35;
Robert Baldwin: Gates Pure and Shining and Serene. Mutual Gazing as an Amatory Motif
in Western Literature and Art, in: Renaissance and Reformation, 10 (1) 1986, pp. 23-49.
32Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4453, fol. 251; Das Evangeliar Otto III Clm
4453 der bayerischen Staatsbibliothek Mnchen, Munich 1978; Kerstin Schulmeyer: Evangeliar
Ottos III, in: Europas Mitte um 1000, vol. I, Stuttgart 2000, pp. 456-457.

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Fig. 7.Noli me tangere, miniature from the Evangelary of Otto III, 998-1000. Munich,
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4453, fol. 251r

element of opposition, the architectural tomb with two angels, the winding
sheet and the bowing, humble Mary Magdalene return as a pattern.33 The
involvement of the angels is also striking in this respect. Their hands point
to the particular moment of engagement between Christ and Mary
Magdalene. The angel on the left looks to Mary, the one on the right to
Christ. In this miniature, the psychological reverberation of the exchange
of glances is underscored by the play of hands. The left hand of Mary
Magdalene and the right hand of Christ reflect one another. Her hand
moves upwards, his downwards; as such they almost form a closed bowl.

33In this instance, the winding sheet appears as a wheel with three intertwining
segments. This shape is graphically connected to an intercultural archetype in the history
of formnamely, that of the sun. Die Andeutung einer Rotation, einer Bewegung,
wahrscheinlich im Zusammenhang mit dem Ablauf auf der Sonnenbahn [] Die Strahlung
ist sowohl innerhalb wie ausserhalb der Kreise gezeichnet [] In den meisten SonnenSymbolen kommt eine deutliche Betonung des Begrifffs Mitte zum Ausdruck, als Besttigung
eines sehr frh erwachten Gefhls fr die zentrale Bedeutung der Sonne fr alles Leben
from: Adrian Frutiger: Zeichen, Symbole, Signete, Signale, in: Der Mensch und seine Zeichen,
vol. III, Wiesbaden 1981, pp. 72-74, fig. 6, p. 73. The wheel also implies the Trinity. By using
this universal, symbolic form for the winding sheet, the miniaturist sought to add greater
cosmic force to his depiction of the Son of Mans resurrection.

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The injunction against touch is subtly entwined in their fingers and pointed to by the angels as the moment of all moments.
In fact, the visual language of the Noli me tangere is mostly a matter of
hands. Desire and prohibition also lie in the pairs of hands. The emotional impact of the prohibition on touching must be clear to the spectator
at a single glance. The physical pathos discussed above plays a crucial role
in this. Where the tactile sense is barred, sight is heightened.34 Or, one can
put it as Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant once wrote it: La main est
parfois compare lil: elle voit.35 The ban on touching conserves all
energy for the gaze. Touch me not echoes in Touch me with your eyes.
The hands often constitute the compositional centre of the Noli me tangere scene: the central tension of the image (Georges Didi-Huberman).36
The almost-touching takes place in a deictic void.37
A second important result of Bieringers Text-Immanent Repetitions
and Variations in John 20:1-18 is his attention to the rupture in the narrative at verse 11 concerning action and movement. Before verse 11, the tomb
is the point of reference to which and from which all the movement occurs.
The noun to mnmeion or the tomb (in the vulgate translated in monumentum) occurs for the last time in 20:11. The tomb progressively recedes
into the background and Jesus comes to the fore. Verbs of extended movement are found almost exclusively in 20:1-10. It is here that the big distances have to be covered. Verbs expressing limited movement and verbs
expressing virtually no movement (also called stances) are concentrated
in 20:11-18. The spell that hangs over the movement of this pericope (20:1118) is only broken after it has reached its climax in Jesus prohibiting even
the small movement that Mary seems to make in coming close to him (me
mou haptou or Noli me tangere in 20:17). The dynamism of the movement
is regained when Jesus announces his moving up to the Father (anabainoo
or ascendi in 20:17) and sends Mary back to his brothers. When the move34This concerns the dynamics between diffferent senses, or even more: the tension
between the lower materiality of touch and the higher spirituality of seeing; see in this
regard: Niklaus Largier: tactus spiritualis. Remarques sur le toucher, la volupt, et les sens
spirituels au Moyen ge, in: Micrologus, 13, 2005: La pelle umanaThe Human Skin, pp. 233249.
35Jean Chevalier/Alain Gheerbrant: s.v. Main, in: Dictionnaire des symboles, Paris 2002,
pp. 599-603, p. 602.
36Georges Didi-Huberman: Fra Angelico, Dissemblance and Figuration, Chicago 1995,
p. 14.
37This is the hand that withdraws and indicates at the same time. Jean Luc Nancy: The
Birth to Presence, ed. and trans. by Brian Holmes, Stanford 1993, p. 275, therefore redefines
the Noli me tangere as a Noli me frangere.

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ment toward Jesus, which is the driving force of the pericope since 20:1
(first covering long distances and moving with speed in 20:1-10 and then
being focused on one place and moving very slowly in 20:11-18), is about to
reach its fulfilment, the movement is abruptly called to a halt, and the
protagonists are seen moving in opposite directions. Summarizing, the
narrative membranes show us the decreasing movements, the shift from
tomb to Christ and the increasing intensity of the gaze.
If we return to the transformations of spatial movement in the visual medium, we notice that these decreasing movements and the shift from the
tomb to Christ are marked by the iconographic convention of the twofold
composition with the Sepulchre on the left and the Noli me tangere event
on the right. The left and right positions suggest the temporal and narrative
reading direction.38 In some cases, the passage before verse 11 is eliminated, and the Noli me tangere becomes an autonomous tomb-detached
scene. The Noli me tangere is dismantled from its setting, and loses its
connotation with the there and then evoked by the tomb.
This textual and iconographic rupture in localization is emphasized by
another feature that is marked in the text as well as in the image. Verse 14
says that Mary Magdalene turns her back when she answers the angels just
before seeing Christ for the first time. As such, she doesnt recognize him
yet: conversa et retrorsum et videt Iesum. The Latin phrase literally means
to turn around (with a dynamic sometimes to flee) in a backwards way
(which means the phrase is double stressed). In verse 16, Mary Magdalene
turns a second time. This is the moment when she recognizes her master.39
The dorsal position of Mary Magdalene toward the Sepulchre strengthens
the polarity in the composition, but marks the Sepulchre as an element to

38There are some examples of inversions, for this see Barbara Baert: The Gaze in the
Garden. Body and Embodiment in Noli me tangere, in: Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek,
58, 2007, pp. 36-61, pp. 51-53; Barbara Baert/Liesbet Kusters: The Twilight Zone of the Noli
me tangere. Contributions to the History of the Motif in Western Europe (ca. 400 - ca. 1000),
in: Louvain Studies, 32 (3), pp. 255-303; Rafanelli 2004 (as in n. 1), p. 205, briefly interprets
the inversion as a deliberate move to shift the visual emphasis: the viewer now concentrates
on Mary Magdalenes perspective, on the empathy with Mary Magdalene, seeing her
Rabbouni. I am currently developing an article on the impact of the reading directions and
inversions in Noli me tangere.
39Tarnow 2007 (as in n. 1), p. 213 also interprets the double conversion as a sign of the
Magdalenes inner conversions. ber Wiederholung [] wird die Notwendigkeit einer
inneren, hier jedoch auch als konkret usserlich zu vollziehende Wendung vom falschen
zum richtigen Objekt betont.

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forget, negate, turn your back on, in favour of the next to come: the phase
of the gaze and, finally, recognition .40
Noli me tangere is, as it were, an iconic turn. In the shift from the Sepulchre
to the body of Christ, in the conversa et retrorsum indeed, a new pact is
made: the pact between place and gaze. This new pact leaves the importance of the spot, the emptiness, behind in favour of another Jerusalem:
the Jerusalem of the untouchable yet visible body.41 The new paradigm of
untouchable visibility glorifies sight into insight and generates a transformation from the historical and objectified locus, the sepulchre, the garden
(the narrative) to the Noli me tangere as a locus beyond (the iconic). On
the visual level, this locus pulsates in energy zones between the hands and
eye-contact. Precisely in the energy of these zones we merely touch upon
the deepest epistemology of Noli me tangere: the threshold between presence and absence.
In the Noli me tangere Christ is stepping out of the visual world in order
to make space for the visible invisibility. Consequently, this new paradigm
also involves our concept of movement, taking into consideration the
second phrase of verse 17, I am not yet ascended to the Father. It has already been mentioned that in iconography, Christ is not only depicted in
contrasting dynamicsgoing away, going upexpressed in his twisted
40The idea of the backwards position is explained by Mellinkofff as a sign of outcast. I
dont think this idea is relevant for the Noli me tangere; Ruth Mellinkofff: Outcasts. Signes of
Otherness in Northern European Art of the late Middle Ages, vol. I (California studies in the
history of art, 32), Berkeley 1993, pp. 220-222. Alternatively, Tarnow connects the position
of Mary Magdalene to contorsio: an aesthetic concept that (at least during the Renaissance)
embodies inner conversion, ibid; see also Mary Pardo: The Subject of Savoldos Magdalene,
in: The Art Bulletin, 71 (1), 1989, pp. 67-91, p. 446, p. 450, on the meanings of the twisted
motion, the contortion or the contrapposto.
41This paradigm contrasts with the passage of John 20:24-31, where Thomas does touch
the body of the Risen Christ. When Thomas touches the wound, he feels and believes on
the basis of a touch that satisfies him. The story of Thomas relies on the verification principle
of the tactile sense and the testis argument, of which there are variations. The men of
Emmaus do not recognise Christ by his voice, nor by touch, but by the dramatic action of
the breaking of the bread (see fig. 2). Mary Magdalene already believed (why would she
need to touch?), but she still had to integrate the insight into the cycle of the Resurrection
by renouncing an overly narrow physical concept: the human body of Christ. Noli me tangere
is therefore more than the story of Thomas, because the first passage also explicates the
meaning of the incarnation. For a further elaboration, see Sandra M. Schneiders: Touching
the Risen Jesus. Mary Magdalene and Thomas the Twin in John 20, in: Proceedings of the
Catholic Theological Society of America 2006, pp. 13-35; Lisa Marie Rafanelli: Seeking Truth
and Bearing Witness. The Noli me tangere and Incredulity of Thomas on Tino di Camaianos
petroni Tomb (1313-1317), in: Comitatus. A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 37,
2006, pp. 32-64.

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body and/or opposite feet, but also the final destination of the ascending
Christ is evoked in the representation or symbols of the heavenly Jerusalem,
as for example on the Hildesheim doors.
An important connotation of going up to the heavenly Jerusalem lies in
the ascending (anabainoo).42 Moreover, the phrase is to be understood as
an action in progress. In a theological sense, this final movement in Noli
me tangere is the undertaking of a heavenly pilgrimage that will finally
open Gods house, and where Christ will become the already mentioned
visible invisibility. The disappearance to open the access contrasts with
the mission of movement of Mary Magdalene in verse 18: she should turn
away from Christ to bring the message. In other words, Christ deflects the
attention from himself.43
All this leads us to our final concept: time.44 Noli me tangere is an iconography of direct speech. The visualisation of these three words depicts
a given moment in time, a fraction. At the same time, this fraction afffirms
a transformation. Exactly at the borders of the Noli me tangere, the transforming body reveals itself: it is Christs body but also Christs altering body
which is not yet ascended to the Father. This transformation also takes
place on the level of temporal perception, for the Noli me tangere stands
at the gate of Christs departure, of his eternal fusion with God. Philosopher
and Derrida expert Zsuzsa Baross writes the following: The impossible,
glorious mad scenario that unfolds in Johns Gospel as stage takes place
right on the limit, on the threshold of the empty tomb, but also of time, of
death. [] Who would dare to speak of the events time? Who would say
of it, for how long? By what measure of time could we measure time, this
time?45 On the visual level, I would recognize this stand-still both in the
mysterious zone between the hands and in the mutual gazing, which both

42Reimund Bieringer: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and

your God (John 20:17). Resurrection and Ascension in the Gospel of John, in: The Resurrection
of Jesus in the Gospel of John, ed. by Craig R. Koester/Reimund Bieringer (Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 222), Tbingen 2008, pp. 209-235, passim.
43This deflection is supported by the Greek word order me mou haptou; Bieringer 2008
(as in n. 41). Me mou haptou means not coming close to the Holy of Holies. This would
underline an interpretation that Christ cannot be approached because his body isin a
theological sensethe temple.
44I am not referring to the time frame of the events as such (John 20:1: Early on the first
day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the
stone had been removed from the tomb), but the way that the moment of Noli me tangere
is captured in the image.
45Zsusza Baross: Noli me tangere for Jacques Derrida, in: Angelaki. Journal of the
theoretical humanities, 6 (2), 2001, pp. 149-164, p. 154.

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belong to another temporal order than the natural order. Barosss reflection
makes it clear that time in Noli me tangere is not a chronology,46 but
rather a beyond-time, parallel to the way that the spatial aspect of Noli me
tangere is beyond real space. In the case study below, I will discuss how
the zones beyond can be connected to the idea of thresholds and interspaces.
III.Thresholds. Interspaces and the Hereafter in Puccio di
Simones Noli me Tangere
The Puccio di Simone fresco of 1340, in Santa Trinit in Florence, is considered to be the oldest autonomous Noli me tangere on a large scale
(fig. 8). The earlier Noli me tangere by Giotto in Assisi and Padova are part
of a cyclical context.47 The fresco in Santa Trinit is painted in a recess of
the vault of the funerary monument for the Strozzi family, dedicated to
Santa Lucia. Mary Magdalene is kneeling before Christ. She is wearing a
red dress. Her hair is golden-blonde and hangs untied. Christ, dressed in a
white tunic, is walking away from her with a dramatic gesture. While his
body and feet are already turned away from her, his thumb almost touches Mary Magdalenes index finger. Christ is carrying a rake in his other
hand. To the left, we can see the open tomb in a cave. The background is
cut offf by the dark depths of a forest. This scene by Puccio di Simone is
prefigurative for a vast iconographic tradition in Italy. Fra Angelico would
not have been able to paint his famous version without Puccio (plate XIII).
The ascetic personality of Mary Magdalene, with her hair untied and wearing a simple red dress, and the almost cave-like tomb are typical. In fact,
this Mary Magdalene is influenced by contemporary sources describing
her as bride, on the one hand, and as penitent, on the other.
The idea of the bride or the Beata Dilectrix Christi is as old as the patristics, but came to the fore in the mystic waves of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, both to the north and south of the Alps, for example in
46Bieringer 2006 (as in n. 2), p. 20 also defends the position that the four exegetes and
biblical theologians puzzling combination of the Noli me tangere and the not-yet-ascending
in verse 17 is to interpreted literary-theologically rather than chronologically. In accordance
with Johns style, Christ has to open the door to God for the believers, and God becomes
their Father and their God.
47Rafanelli 2004 (as in n. 1), pp. 159-164, fig. 26; Eve Borsook: The Mural Painters of
Tuscany from Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto, Oxford 1980, p. 41. There is a strong afffinity with
the Giottesque Noli me tangere in the Cappella scrovegini in Padua, Rafanelli 2004 (as in n.
1), p. 146.

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Fig. 8.Puccio di Simone, Noli me tangere, 1340. Florence, Santa Trinit

the work of Mechtild von Hackeborn (d. 1298)48 and Catharine of Siena
(1347-1380).49 The relationship between John 20 and the Song of Songs,
particulary verses 3:1-4, in which the bride seeks her lover, was recognised

48Mechtilde von Hackeborn (d. 1298) (later from Helfta in Saxony) describes in her
visions how the wounds and the tears of Mary Magdalene became the ultimate grace for
the union with Christ, the lover. Marys love was overwhelming and extremely strong. That
is why Christ said to her, after she wept at Simons house: Go in peace (Vade in pace).
Mechtilde concludes her passage on the love of Mary Magdalene with a monologue in which
Magdalene asks the reader to do penance and to follow her in shedding tears of true spiritual
love and joy. Then God will forgive. This monologue is described by Mechtilde on
Magdalenes saints day; Mechtilde von Hackeborn: Het boek der bijzondere genade, ed. and
trans. by Richard Louis Jean Bromberg, Zwolle s.a., p. 412.
49Caroline Walker Bynum: Formen weiblicher Frmmigkeit im Spteren Mittelalter,
in: Krone und Schleier. Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklstern, ed. by Jefffrey Hamburger,
Bonn 2005, pp. 119-129.

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Plate XIII.Fra Angelico, Noli me tangere, c. 1445. Florence, San Marco, cell 1

by Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235).50 When the watchmen show the bride the
way, she wants to take him to her mothers room for an intimate encounter. Where the seeking and finding in John 20 culminates in the emotion
of letting go, the Song of Songs colours in the relationship between woman and man as a seeking and finding, as a grasp in order to hold..51 The
passage was included in the liturgy of the saints day on 22 July.52 The intertextuality with the Song of Solomon was spread by the Apocrypha and
the Biblia Pauperum.
50In canticum canticorum, 25; Grard Garitte: Traits dHippolyte sur David et Goliath,
sur le cantique des cantiques et sur lantchristversion Gorgienne (Corpus Scriptorum
Christianorum Orientalium, 264), Leuven 1965, pp. 45-49. See also: Victor Saxer: Marie
Madeleine dans le commentaire dHippolyte sur le cantique des cantiques, in: Revue
bndictine, 101, 1991, pp. 219-239.
51Sabine Van Den Eynde: Do not hold on to me. A Plea for an Intertextual Interpretation
of Mary Magdalene, in: Noli me tangere. Mary Magdalene. One Person, Many Images, ed. by
Barbara Baert et al., exhibition catalogue, Leuven 2006, pp. 1-14, p. 11.
52I developed the impact of mysticism and the mulieres religiosae on the Noli me
tangere, in: The Embroidery Antependium of Wernigerode, Germany. Mary Magdalene and
Female Religiosity in the 13th Century, in: Konsthistorisk tidskrift, 76 (3), 2007, pp. 147-167.

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A Canticle of Mary Magdalene, written in thirteenth-century Provence,

expresses her great love for Christ in a monologue. Mary!, he said. And I
recognised the Master and rushed to him, to embrace him. But he said: Do
not touch me! And I understood that I must die, like him, if I was to be at
one with love, that does not die, but, beyond death and the grave, points
us the way to a happiness that is great without end and durable without
end.53 Here, the insight-generating impact of the Noli me tangere is radicalised to such an extent that Mary Magdalene has to pass through death,
together with Christ, so that she can be resurrected in everlasting love and
wisdom. In the Paupers Bible, the Biblia Pauperum, the Noli me tangere is
connected to Daniel in the den of lions (Daniel 6:19-24) on the one hand,
and the encounter and embrace of the bride and bridegroom of the Song
of Solomon (Song 3, 4) (see supra) on the other hand (fig. 9).54
Jerusalem is presented as an interspace with the paradise metaphor and
the garden allegory of love. We will in fact find many Noli me tangere iconographies, especially in the North, where the idea of the enclosed garden
is essentially linked to the visual intertext.55 The motif of the hedge or the
walled garden owed its meaning to the context of spiritual intimacy and
became a metaphor for the bride.56
53Frans A. Brunklaus: Het Hooglied van Maria Magdalena, Maastricht 1940, p. 96. The
Noli me tangere is also fitted in with the Raising of Lazarus. And I, filled with gratitude,
embraced the master, but with one look from his eyes, he warded me offf. Do not touch
me, he said. But already Lazarus lay in my arms, weeping for joy (ibid., p. 92).
54In this prefigurative context it is also worth mentioning that Mary Magdalene wears
as early as the 10th century hymns the epitheton of Fons vitae. Mary Magdalene, the weeping,
incorporates liquefaction, the lacrymological female sex. She is fluid, the watersource of
paradise; see Piroska Nagy: Le don des larmes aux moyen ge. Un instrument spirituel en
qute dinstitution, Ve-XIIIe sicle, Paris 2000, pp. 388-412.
55See Baert 2007 (as in n. 37), pp. 37-61.
56The walled garden also enhances the reality content of the scene. Fletcher Collins:
The Production of Medieval Church Music-Drama, Virginia 1972, p. 59, denies that the garden
would suggest a dramaturgical setting. In the stage directions of the Paschal plays, the Noli
me tangere is staged near the sepulchre. Petrus Chrysologus (d. c. 450) states that Mary
Magdalene personifies the bride and Ecclesia. With thanks to Anthony Dupont and Ward
De Pril: Marie-Madeleine et Jean 20,17 dans la littrature patristique latine, in: Augustiniana,
56, 2006, pp. 159-182. On Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 76, 2-3 see Gabriele Banterle: Opere di
San Pietro Crisologi. Sermoni, Milan 1996/1997, pp. 111-115. On Augustine and Jerome,
respectively, see Augustine: In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus decem, in: Patrologia
Latina, 35, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Paris 1841, coll. 1977-2002, col. 1998, and Hieronymus:
Epistulae LXXI-CXX (Corpus Scriptorium Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 55), Vienna 1996,
pp. 470-515, pp. 481-488. This role of Ecclesia comes to the fore in the paradox of the refusal
by Christ. Thats why the refusal to touch is not considered as principle (with exception of
some misogynous interpretations in Ambrose), but situational and local: the Noli-locus

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Fig. 9.Biblia Pauperum, 15th-century. Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France

Besides, the bride Mary Magdalene is also referred to as the Beata peccatrix. Especially in the context of the mendicant orders, Mary Magdalene
became the sinful and penitent woman: sermons in Florence emphasized
her as an exemplum for laywomen, and presented her as the true incarnation of faith. In iconography the episode of her starvation in Sainte-Baume
with long hair became very popular,57 as in the fourteenth-century panel
marks the move to a phase between the ascension of Jesus and his return. The Mary in the
Noli me tangere may not touch Christ because, at that moment, she does not possess the
capacity to comprehend Christ in His resurrected and divine form. Ambrose extrapolates
the Noli me tangere in his Expositio into a noli manum adhibere maioribus: an injunction
against instruction. He compares the Mary of John 20 with Eve: the first sin was committed
by a woman; hence, the first person to see the Resurrected Christ will also be a woman. The
annunciation to the apostles is the restitution of the first sin: per os mulieris mors ante
processerat, per os mulieris vita reparatur; Ambrosius Mediolanensis: Explanatio psalmorum
XII (25, 24, 2), in: Sancti Ambrosi Opera 6 (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum,
64), Vienna 1999, p. 345.
57Along with the spread of the Vzelay cult from the 11th century onwards, the vita
eremetica is expanded into a Vita apostolica, which tells us how Mary Magdalene went
ashore in Marseille, converted the people of the Provence and withdrew to the wilderness
of Sainte-Baume where she lived as a hermit, died, and was buried in Saint-Maximin, where
her head relic is still kept; Guy Lobrichon: Le dossier magdalnien aux XIe-XIIe sicle,
Edition de trois pices majeures, in: Mlanges de lcole franaise de Rome. Moyen ge, 104
(1), 1992, pp. 163-180, edition of this Vita, pp. 164-169. The Vita apostolica was distributed in

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painting and mural paintings.58 This new role has to be understood in the
context of the intensification of the place of confession in everyday life and
in the personal guide to salvation and perfection. This whole context is too
vast and not primordial enough for my focus here.59 Nevertheless, I wish
to mention Petrarca (1304-1373) who calls her Dulcis amica dei/lacrymis
inflectere nostris, sweet friend of God, beware of our tears in a poem,60
and who had great admiration for Mary Magdalene. Petrarca considered
her not only an intercessor and mediatrix, but also the embodiment of the
closest and most intimate possible contact with God.
Mary Magdalene was more and more ambiguously typecast as the voluptuous, beautiful, yet ascetic lover, as the elected, yet sufffering and
weeping penitent, as the bride and anachorete. The Noli me tangere of
Puccio di Simone and Fra Angelico are to be situated in that Zeitgeist: we
see a Mary who is already the Magdalene of the penitent. The cave-like
tomb foreshadows this anachorete afterlife in the caves of Provence. The
fact that the setting is also very much inspired by the ecclesia primitiva, is
completely in accord with the image of Mary Magdalene sustained by the
mendicants. The Meditationes Vitae Christi are written in the context of
this perception of intimicay, love and starvation. The author narrates about
the Noli me tangere: And they stayed together lovingly with great joy [],
she looked at him closely. []. I can hardly believe that she did not touch
him familiarly, but He acted thus [] as I said, because he wished to elevate
her soul to things of heaven (and not of earth).61
Concerning this historical characterization of Mary Magdalene in
Tuscany, Jerusalem is presented in a second interspace of poverty and the
ideal of the hermit. In both Puccio di Simones and in Fra Angelicos fresco,
there is a contrast between the cultivated garden in front and the wild
the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine, 1260; Jacobus de Voragine. The Golden Legend.
Readings on the Saints, vol. I, ed. by William Granger Ryan, Princeton 1995, p. 375.
58See also the influence of the Anjou family on this type of Iconography, as in the San
Domenico Maggiore in Naples, painted by Pietro Cavallini (14th century); Ferdinando
Bologna: I pittori alla corte angioina di Napoli. 1266-1414, Rome 1969, pp. 115-146; Katherine
Ludwig Jansen: The Making of the Magdalen. Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later
Middle Ages, Princeton 1999, pp. 130-131.
59Ibid.
60Eve Duperray: Le Carmen de Beata Maria Magdalena. Marie-Madeleine dans loeuvre
de Franois Ptrarque: image emblmatique de la Belle Laure, in: Marie Madeleine dans la
mystique, les arts et les lettres, ed. by Eve Duperray, Beauchesne 1989, pp. 273-288.
61Meditations on the life of Christ. An illustrated manuscript of the 14th century, Paris,
Bibliothque Nationale, Ms. ital. 115, transl. by Isa Ragusa, completed from the Latin and ed.
by Isa Ragusa and Rosalie B. Green (Princeton monographs in art and archaeology, 35),
Princeton (New Jersey) 1961, pp. 362-363.

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woods in the background.62 This contrasts the interspaces of the seeking

bride and mourning hermit with the hidden space of the Unheimlichkeit,
the dark unknown. This opposition might also express the threshold between here and hereafter, between the visible and the invisible, a split that
isas we saw already in the early medieval examplesessential in the
Noli me tangere event. Once more, Christ steps out of this world toward
the hereafter; as such Christ steps out of the world of the image into the
world of the invisible. This makes the locus of Noli me tangere interactive
with us, the beholders.
As beholders of the Noli me tangere scene, we look through the eyes of
Mary Magdalene, gaining insight in the bodily concepts of one man, stepping into the diffferent interspaces of Jerusalem. Noli me tangere enables
that transformation by also making its pact between space and our own
gaze. We, too, must go beyond corporeal sight, as Mary Magdalene first
perceived Christ with physical eyesthe body of Rabbouni, and only
then with the eyes of faiththe resurrected body. These transitions of
corporeal sight into spiritual vision are important dynamics in medieval
exegesis on sight and insight as early as Beda Venerabilis. In his Homily
11:15, he says: For indeed all those who believe, whether they be [] those
who saw him in the flesh, or those who believe after his Ascension, share
in the most benevolent promise of his in Matthew: Blessed are the pure of
heart for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8) is indeed a central phrase in
these reflections on spiritual seeing.63
From this ultimate scopic point of view, the inch of space between a
thumb and a finger is pars pro toto for the greatest gap in the history of
salvation: the transition from Christs physical visibility to his invisibility.
The deictic void between the hands so small that it is almost unbearable,
is the door ajar, the nearest one can get to see God, to grasp and understand
the Divine completely. Though impossible in this lifethere will always be
a Noli-zone as there always will be a veilthis can be reached in death after
62It is known that the wilderness (the desert, mountains, caves) also refers to the
spirited cult of the anchorites. This spirituality, which is much related to the characteristic
of the Mediterranean landscape, is found in Italy in the southern parts of the Laure or in
grotto churches. It is important to include landscape profiles and their spiritual connotations
in research of narrative spaces. See Barbara Baert: An unknown cross-legend in the grotto
church of Andria. First Results on the iconographical tradition in a Mediterranean context,
in preparation for Critica dArte. Taking up these issues here would lead me too far astray
for my present purposes; see also George Hunston Williams: Wilderness and Paradise in
Christian Thought. The Biblical Experience of The Desert in the History of Christianity and the
Paradise Theme in the Theological Idea of the University, New York 1962.
63Homilia 11:15, Deshman 1997 (as in n. 26), p. 536.

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passing the dark woods, and going hereafter into the light of the face of God:
the beata visio.
The beatific vision, apex and goal, was discussed from 1331 onwards in
terms of whether this would be enjoyed by souls only at the one hand, or
with the Last Judgments at the other. According to Pope John XXII, only
the latter could be the case. This papal sermon had an enormous impact.64
Noli me tangere, seeing the resurrected body on Christs way back to God,
refers in its essence to the visio beata, to the expectation of this ultimate
joy. On this stage, Puccio di Simones Noli me tangere is, performatively
speaking, wonderfully fittingnot only in terms of the Strozzis funerary
context, but also in the context of Lucia. For is it not indeed remarkable
that the painting is connected to the great patron saint of sight and light?
Conclusion
It is well known that Jerusalem is a poly-semantic concept. Should we
consider Jerusalem as a story, map, picture or icon? Jerusalem is a historical place with its history of events, but Jerusalem is also a place in heaven.
It is the place narrated in miniatures, paintings and pilgrim accounts,
evoking past events in the present. It is a place translocated in other climates, upon other soils; a place transmitted in objects and relics. And, to
make things complete, all these layers are in one way or another interconnected. In short, it is hard to avoid Jerusalem in the Middle Ages. Jerusalem
is everywhere: not only in the touchable but also in the untouchable.
In this essay, I have tried to read the Noli me tangere in text and image
from a spatial point of view. Noli me tangere is of course strongly rooted in
the Jerusalem of the gospel, of the commemoration of the event. However,
in the core of its mysterythe forbidden touchnew spatial concepts according to Jerusalems inception in medieval thought were unveiled. Some
of these concepts came to the fore at the level of the image, using conventional symbols like the tree, the eagle and the portal. In that regard, Jerusalem
was not merely the Jerusalem of the setting near the tomb, but an upgraded
Heavenly Jerusalem. As the text in the Gospel of John saysI am not yet
ascended to my Father (John 20:17b)the event suggests a reunion with the
Father. As such the Noli me tangere accomplishes creation, fulfils incarnation.
64Christian Trottmann: La vision batifique. Des disputes scolastiques sa dfinition par
Benot XII (Bibliothque des Ecoles Franaises dAthnes et de Rome, 289), Rome 1995,
passim.

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Noli me tangere is a moment in which transformation and thresholds take

place. The exceptional power of the momentum captured in these three words
was in fact interpreted in comments, such as in the In veneratione Maria
Magdalenae (923-834), which presents the Noli me tangere as the necessary
and ultimate step to gain insight into the mystery of the resurrection.
In the complex transposition of word into image, and within the autonomy of the visual medium towards the textual, image-specific features
emerged in the Noli me tangere iconography, such as the hands. But more
than a mere suggestion of emotion, these hands are the speaking eyes of a
speechless medium. In fact, analyzing the Noli me tangere corpus, the
mutual gazing is almost constant. The gazing was, at the same time, elaborated in exegesis as a powerful generator of insight. In the dismantling of
the sense of touch, the sense of sight could increase. Once more, according
to the text-image comparison, the internal rupture of verse 11, marked by
a turning away from the tomb and decreasing movements, was noticeable
in the narrative as well as in the iconography. Verse 14 could be considered
as a second marker, where Mary Magdalene turns towards Christ. Mary
Magdalenes dorsal position emphasizes a conversion from the empty tomb
toward the untouchable visible body. I have called this the iconic turn, or
the pact between space and gaze, but also between movement and time.
Furthermore, this pact efffects the notion of the not yet ascended body of
Christ. Noli me tangere stands right at the edge of disappearance, but it is
a disappearance that enables access to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
In the case study of the Noli me tangere by Puccio di Simone, these diffferent
approaches were united: the analyzing of symbolic conventions, the textimage comparisons, the image-immanent features of Noli me tangere, such
as the iconic turn, and the context of contemporary opinions and comments. Besides the references to the bride and the hermit, suggesting two
diffferent interspaces of Jerusalem, the funerary context of the afffresco gave
a particular dimension to the spatial reading of Noli me tangere, namely
the beata visio: The beatific vision as the end stage of the journey toward
Jerusalem, the beatific vision as the place where space and gaze enjoy their
ultimate feast. Noli me tangere unveils how narrative space finally takes
the place of the iconic space: the access to visible invisibility.

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