Raffaello, resurrezione di cristo, 1499-1502, 18

A soldier in highly decorative orange and blue armor sits on the grass, raising his hands to shield his eyes from a divine light. Beside him is a classical sarcophagus featuring red and grey marble panels and a base supported by a dolphin-shaped carving. In the background, a lone crane stands in a distant landscape while another figure flees the scene.

The Resurrection in High Renaissance art often functioned as a visual metaphor for the Neoplatonic concept of the soul's ascent and its triumph over the material 'tomb' of the body. Raphael's early work was deeply influenced by the intellectual milieu of the Urbino and Florentine courts where Marsilio Ficino's synthesis of Christian doctrine and Platonic philosophy was paramount.