Noli Me Tangere

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1500–05

Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci; Italian, 1445/46-1523)

These four panels, together with another one depicting the Resurrection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), once constituted a predella—a series of small pictures, often narrative scenes, forming the base of an altarpiece. These predella scenes depict moments when Jesus’s divine nature was revealed: at his birth, at his baptism, during his conversation at a well with a Samarian woman, at his res-urrection, and through his appearance to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. The painting that once surmounted the predella as the focal point of the altarpiece has not been identified.

Status: On View, Gallery 205
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Perugino
Title: Noli Me Tangere
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1500–1505
Medium: Tempera on panel, transferred to canvas
Dimensions: 27.3 × 46.3 cm (10 3/4 × 18 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1026
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16207/manifest.json

Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. 2 (London, 1854), p. 127.
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W. Bürger [T. Thoré], Trésors d’art en Angleterre, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1865), pp. 34–35.
J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Fourteenth Century, vol. 3 (London, 1866), pp. 250–51.
“Leeds Exhibition,” The Art Journal 7 (1868), p. 137.
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William Roberts, Memorials of Christie’s: A Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1896, vol. 2 (London, 1897), p. 197.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Objects in the Museum, Part I, Sculpture and Painting, 3d ed. (Chicago, 1898), p. 124, no. 193.
George C. Williamson, Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino (London, 1903), p. 126.
Bernard Berenson, The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 3d ed. (New York and London, 1909), p. 218.
J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. by Edward Hutton, vol. 3 (London and New York, 1909), pp. 258, 259 n. 1.
Bryson Burroughs, “A Painting by Perugino,” Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 6, 6 (1911), p. 130.
Hippolyte Mireur, Dictionnaire des ventes d’art faites en France et à l’étranger pendant les XVIIIe & XIXe siècles, (Paris, 1912), p. 283.
Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell’arte italiana, vol. 7, pt. 2 (Milan, 1913), p. 566 n. 1.
Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813 – 1912, vol. 2 (London, 1913: reprinted New York, 1968), pp. 917–918.
Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture, and Other Objects in the Museum (Chicago, 1914), p. 208, no. 2096.
Walter Bombe, Perugino: Des Meisters Gemälde, Klassiker der Kunst 25 (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1914), p. 256.
Bryson Burroughs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings (New York, 1914), p. 205.
J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, T. Borenius, ed., vol. 5 (New York, 1914), p. 365.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, and Architecture (Chicago, 1917), p. 165.
Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings (Chicago, 1920), p. 63.
Algernon Graves, Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century, (London, 1921), p. 318.
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Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, and Paintings (Chicago, 1923), p. 72.
U. Gnoli, Pietro Perugino (Spoleto, 1923), p. 58.
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Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1925), p. 160, no. 2067.
Arthur McComb, “Francesco Ubertini (Bacchiacca),” The Art Bulletin 8 (1926), p. 150.
 Rose Mary Fischkin, “Martin A. Ryerson Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, XIII to XVIII Century, Loaned to The Art Institute of Chicago,” (unpub. MS, Ryerson Library, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1926), pp. 48–52.
Fiorenzo Canuti, Il Perugino, vol. 2 (Siena, 1931), p. 366.
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William R. Valentiner, “Paintings in the Collection of Martin A. Ryerson,” (unpub. MS, Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), n. p.
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Ettore Camesasca, Tutta la pittura del Perugino (Milan, 1959), pp. 112–13, ill.
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London, British Institution, 1852, no. 45.
Manchester, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 83.
Leeds, National Exhibition of Works of Art, 1868, no. 2909.
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The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 123d.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Glad Tidings of Great Joy. Christmas at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1993.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Perugino: The Master of the Italian Renaissance, November 15, 1997 – February 1, 1998, no. 1e.
Perugia, Italy, Gallerie Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugino, il divin pittore, February 28, 2004 – August 18, 2004, no. I.48e.

Alexander Barker, London, by 1852 to at least 1857 [lent to London 1852 and Manchester 1857]; sold by Barker to William Ward (d. 1885), first Earl of Dudley, London, by 1868 [lent by Dudley to Leeds 1868]; sold Christie’s, London, June 25, 1892 (nos. 76-77, 79-80. The Resurrection, no. 78, was sold separately and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), to Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, acting on behalf of Martin A. Ryerson [according to letters from Durand-Ruel to Ryerson dated June 25 and 29, 1892 in the Art Institute archives]; sold by Durand-Ruel to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, 1893 [according to the bill of sale dated April 8, 1893 in the Art Institute archives]; intermittently on loan to the Art Institute from 1893; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

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