Learn more about the theme of Hope this Jubilee year by reflecting on great works of art. Read more from the Vatican's Jubilee website: https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en/notizie/comunicati/2025/cammino-della-speranza-rembrandt-burnand-roma.html 

"In 1898 Eugène Burnand presented his famous painting "The Disciples Peter and John Running Together to the Tomb of Christ on the Morning of the Resurrection" at the Salon in Paris where it achieved immediate success. The French state initially purchased it to be hung at the Musée du Luxembourg. Since then it has remained in French public collections - it was also exhibited at the Louvre – and its current location is at the Musée d'Orsay.

"Burnand, born in French-speaking Switzerland into a Protestant family, dedicated his career to combining art and faith despite the Reformed tradition limiting the use of religious images. In a letter from 1897, the artist described his artistic credo: "Mysticism, for me, consists more in the intensity and depth of vision than in imagination left to itself. I am a realist by nature and by destiny."

"The work captures the moment when the disciples, still incredulous, run to the tomb. The light of the rising sun and the movement of the figures express an intense hope, symbolized by the golden glow of the sky. With their workmen’s hands and tense faces, the disciples do not yet know that they are about to see the risen Jesus, marking the dawn of a new hope, the most radiant in history."