According to the account in the New Testament (Mark 16: 1-8), the three Maries (Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary the mother of James) visited Jesus' tomb on the morning of the Resurrection to find the stone rolled away, and the body gone. There they encountered an angel who explained Christ had risen from the dead (Mark 16:1-8).

This painting is by an imitator of Mantegna, and from the same series as 'The Resurrection' and 'Noli me Tangere'. They are all close in style and subject to Mantegna's works of this period, and may record lost drawings or engravings which he designed.