Two women stand near an empty sarcophagus, their heads tilt down as they peer into the open tomb. The scene, part of Christ's Passion story, is described in multiple Gospels. This image depicts the account in the Gospel of Matthew. The first woman is Mary Magdalene; she wears red, her traditional color in art. An angel sits on a pink marble tomb, gazing at the two women nearby. Faithful to the scriptural text, the angel is clothed in white as he is perched solidly on the edge of the sepulcher, thus emphasizing his, and Jesus's, real presence on earth. His raised right hand points up, indicating the triumphant Resurrection about which he informs the women: Christ is risen, He is no longer to be found in the tomb.

This decorated initial "A" is a cutting from a large choir book which introduced the first response at the first nocturne of Easter Sunday with the chant Angelus domini descendi de caelo ("The angel of God descended from heaven"). Such exquisite hand-painted letters with precious pigments and metals, such as burnished gold along the sides of the "A," and on the haloes of the three figures, were intended to illustrate and revere God's word in scripture, as cherished in worship and other devotional practices.