Illustrating Miracles – The Raising of Lazarus

Attributed to Aertgen Claesz van Leyden, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1530-1535
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

“Now a man was ill, 
Lazarus from Bethany,

the village of Mary and her 
sister Martha.

Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil

and dried his feet with her hair;

it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

So the sisters sent word to him saying,

"Master, the one you love is ill."

When Jesus heard this he said,

"This illness is not to end in death,

but is for the glory of God,

that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that he was ill,

he remained for two days in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to his disciples,

"Let us go back to Judea."

The disciples said to him,

"Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,

and you want to go back there?"

Jesus answered,

"Are there not twelve hours in a day?

If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,

because he sees the light of this world.

But if one walks at night, he stumbles,

because the light is not in him."

He said this, and then told them,

"Our friend Lazarus is asleep,

but I am going to awaken him."

So the disciples said to him,

"Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved."

But Jesus was talking about his death,

while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.

So then Jesus said to them clearly,

"Lazarus has died.

And I am glad for you that I was not there,

that you may believe.

Let us go to him."

So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,

"Let us also go to die with him."

Possibly Jacopino da Reggio, The Raising of Lazarus
From a Psalter
Italian (Bologna), End of the 13th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Smith-Lesouef 21, fol. 16r

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus

had already been in the tomb for four days.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.

And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary

to comfort them about their brother.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,

she went to meet him;

but Mary sat at home.

Martha said to Jesus,

"Lord, if you had been here,

my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,

God will give you."

Jesus said to her,

"Your brother will rise."

Martha said to him,

"I know he will rise,

in the resurrection on the last day."

Jesus told her,

"I am the resurrection and the life;

whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,

and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord.

I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,

the one who is coming into the world."

The Raising of Lazarus
From a Vies de la Vierge et du Christ
Italian (Naples), c. 1350
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 9561, fol. 159r

When she had said this,

she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,

"The teacher is here and is asking for you."

As soon as she heard this,

she rose quickly and went to him.

For Jesus had not yet come into the village,

but was still where Martha had met him.

So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her

saw Mary get up quickly and go out,

they followed her,

presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,

she fell at his feet and said to him,

"Lord, if you had been here,

my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,

he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,

"Where have you laid him?"

They said to him, "Sir, come and see."

And Jesus wept.

So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."

But some of them said,

"Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man

have done something so that this man would not have died?"

Follower of Guillaume Vrelant, The Raising of Lazarus
From a Book of Hours, Office of the Dead
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1475-1485
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 493, fol. 93v

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.

Jesus said, "Take away the stone."

Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him,

"Lord, by now there will be a stench;

he has been dead for four days."

Jesus said to her,

"Did I not tell you that if you believe

you will see the glory of God?"

So they took away the stone.

And Jesus raised his eyes and said,

"Father, I thank you for hearing me.

I know that you always hear me;

but because of the crowd here I have said this,

that they may believe that you sent me."

And when he had said this,

He cried out in a loud voice,

"Lazarus, come out!"

The dead man came out,

tied hand and foot with burial bands,

and his face was wrapped in a cloth.

So Jesus said to them,

"Untie him and let him go."

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary

and seen what he had done began to believe in him.”

John 11:1-45, Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

The story of the raising of Lazarus, read as the Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent in Year A¹ is a manifestation of the power of Jesus, as God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, over life and death.  It also foreshadows the Resurrection of Jesus, which is to be celebrated in two weeks, and which is the supreme manifestation of the power of God the Father who raises Jesus, not just to a renewed earthly life, but to a bodily life that is outside the bounds of space and time.  It is also a reminder of the forthcoming resurrection through Baptism of those preparing for it, as well as a reminder to the already baptized of their own Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection.  At all times it is also a promise that, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die" so that, in God’s time, we will also be raised from the dead, not just to this earthly bodily life, but through Jesus, to an eternal one (John 11:25-26).  Lazarus raised is a token of the greater Resurrections to come, that of Jesus and of all of us at the end of time.

The Raising of Lazarus has a very long iconographic history, beginning almost at the beginning of Christian art.  Among the early images are those found in the catacombs, such as the Catacomb of Saint Callixtus on the Via Appia. 

The Raising of Lazarus

Roman, 3rd Century

Rome, Catacomb of Saint Callixtus

Once it became legal for Christians to worship openly and to bury their dead openly, the raising of Lazarus was one of the most common pictures used to decorate the marble sarcophagi that wealthier Christians began to commission.²

 

Sarcophagus frontal, Scenes from the Life of Christ and Saint Peter
Roman, c. 300-330
Vatican, Pio-Cristiano Museum
The Raising of Lazarus can be seen at the far right, including the image of Martha. 

Sarcophagus frontal, Scenes from the Story of Jonah and the Life of Christ
Roman, End of 3rd-Beginning of 4th Century
Vatican, Pio-Cristiano Museum

Here the Raising of Lazarus is at the upper left.  The story of Jonah and his encounter with the whale was also a popular form of Christian iconography, with obvious references to the Resurrection of Jesus.

 

Sarcophagus of Crescens, Biblical Scenes
Roman, Early 4th Century
Vatican, Pio-Cristiano Museum

Scenes from the Old Testament run across the narrow section at the top and culminate with Moses Striking the Rock (which we have seen has references to Baptism) at the far right in the lower section.  Various scenes from the life of Christ (Multiplying the Loaves and Fishes, Changing Water into Wine and Healing the Canaanite Woman), plus one scene from the life of St. Peter fill the center of the lower section.  The Raising of Lazarus is at the far left.

Sarcophagus with Biblical Scenes
Roman, 4th Century
Vatican, Pio-Cristiano Museum

There is a reference to the Old Testament at the far left, where Adam and Eve flank Abraham.  The rest of the sarcophagus features New Testament scenes:  Jesus changing water to wine, entering Jerusalem, curing the man born blind, giving the law to the Apostles (Tradition Legis) and Raising Lazarus.

 

Rejoined fragments of a sarcophagus frontal
Roman, c. 325-350
Vatican, Pio-Cristiano Museum

This frontal combines the classical Roman tradition of a portrait bust of the deceased carved in a shell (signifying that they are dead) with the scene of Moses Striking the Rock and Jesus Raising Lazarus from the Dead, referring to Baptism and Resurrection.  A scene of putti tending sheep also has Christian undertones.

 

The Sarcophagus of the Apostles
Roman, 346-355
Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano

In this sarcophagus the upper level has scenes of the Adoration of the Magi and the story of Jonah.  The lower level features Moses Striking the Rock, the arrest of St. Peter, Christ's prediction that Peter will betray Him at the crow of the cock who stands nearby.  On the right side of the lower section are the curing of the deaf man and of the man born blind and the Raising of Lazarus.

 

 

But it was also used by those of lesser means, as the famous and touching memorial stone to a young man shows.

 

Tombstone for the Loculus burial of Datus
Roman, Second half 4th Century
Vatican, Pio-Cristiano Museum
The inscription reads:  “Given by his parents for their well-beloved son, Datus, who lived 20 years in peace”

 

 

All of these images present virtually the same image.  A beardless Jesus stands in front of a typical aediculum, a classically constructed doorway which represents the entrance to a tomb.  And in the doorway stands what is easily recognizable as a corpse wrapped like a mummy.  One can clearly see the edges of the wrappings, as they cross over the body.

Glass Bowl with the Raising of Lazarus
Roman (Cologne area), Second half of 4th Century
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

And, from the beginning of the fourth century on, one can also see another thing, the figure of a small, kneeling woman.  Martha has made an early appearance in the scene.

 

Reliquary Casket with the Raising of Lazarus
Roman, c. 400-450
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Another item in these images might strike us as odd.  Jesus appears to use a stick or pointer of some kind to gesture toward the body in the doorway.  This is a feature of the earliest images and is, I think, added to focus attention on the action, which has such significance for all of us.

Ivory Pyx, The Raising of Lazarus
Byzantine, 6th Century
Cleveland, Museum of Art

 

 

By the sixth century the pointer had become a cross, reminding us that the reason Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead was through the power given Him by the Father through His sufferings on the Cross. 

 

Book Cover with Biblical Scenes
Byzantine, 6th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9384, Cover
The Raising of Lazarus can be seen at the bottom right.

 

Eventually, even the cross was abandoned and Jesus is shown simply gesturing with His hand. 

 

Mosaic, The Raising of Lazarus

Byzantine, 6th Century

Ravenna,  Church of Sant' Appolinare Nuovo

 

 

Ivory Panel, The Raising of Lazarus
Byzantine (Italian), c. 900-1100
London, British Museum

 

Frequently, in the Middle Ages, the image of the Raising of Lazarus was accompanied by other scenes from the life of Jesus, especially those that lead up to the climax of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

 

The Raising of Lazarus, The Woman Washing the Feet of Jesus and the Entry into Jerusalem
From Orations of Gregory Nazianzus
Byzantine (Constantinople), 879-882
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Grec 510, fol. 196v

The Raising of Lazarus
From the Gospel Book of Otto III
German (Reichenau), c. 1000
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
MS Clm 4453, fol. 92

 

And, as time passed, the image of Lazarus standing in the doorway of his tomb was replaced by other images of horizontal burial in a sarcophagus or in the ground.

 

 

The Raising of Lazarus
Spanish, First half of 12th Century
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters

In this same period, the tightly bound mummiform figure of Lazarus is replaced by a figure in a loose shroud, who is able to react to his resuscitation.  

 

The Raising of Lazaaarus
From a Picture Bible
French (St. Omer, Abbey of St. Bertin), c. 1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 9r

The Raising of Lazarus
From the Vita Christi
English (East Anglia), c. 1190
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 101, fol. 61

 

The Raising of Lazarus and Entry into Jerusalem
From a Psalter
English (London), c. 1200-1225
London, British Library
MS Landsdowne 420, fol. 10v

 

The Raising of Lazarus and the Entry into Jerusalem
From the Psalter of St. Louis and Blanche of Castille
French, c. 1225
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Arsenal 1186, fol. 21v

 

The Transfiguration and The Raising of Lazarus
From a Psalter
English (Oxford), c. 1200-1220
London, British Library
MS Royal 1 D X, fol. 4

 

Matthew Paris, The Raising of Lazarus and The Woman Washing the Feet of Jesus
From a Psalter
English (St. Albans), c. 1240
London, British Library
MS Arundel 157, fol. 8v

 

The Raising of Lazarus
From a Book of Hours
Belgian (Liege), c. 1250-1300
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 G 17, fol. 69v

 

 

The Raising of Lazarus
From the Grosbois Psalter
French or Flemish (Mosan), 1261
New York, Pierpoint Morgan Library
MS M 440, fol. 81r

 

 

Ivory Panel with Scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ
French, 14th Century
Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Age

 

Ivory Diptych with Scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ
German, c. 1350-1375
Cleveland, Museum of Art

 

The Raising of Lazarus
From the "Queen Mary Psalter"
English (London), c, 1310-1320
London, British Library
MS Royal 2 B VII, fol. 211

 

Workshop of Pacino di Bonaguida, The Raising of Lazarus
From Scenes from Life of Christ and the Life of Blessed Gerard of Villamagna
Italian (Florence), 1315-1325
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 643, fol. 7r

From the twelfth century on the artists of northwestern Europe universally depicted the grave of Lazarus as a horizontal sarcophagus, a hole in the ground or a crypt burial.  Only artists working in Italy and in other countries near the Mediterranean, such as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or Christian Armenia, and the Greek Byzantine artists continued to use the upright formula.

 

Basilius, The Raising of Lazarus
From The Melisende Psalter
Crusader (Jerusalem), c. 1131-1143
London, British Library
MS Egerton 1139, fol. 5r

 

Giotto, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel

 

Duccio, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1308-1311
Fort Worth, Kimball Art Museum

 

Luca di Tomme, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, Before 1362
Vatican, Pinacoteca Vaticana

 

 

The Raising of Lazarus
From a New Testament
Armenian, 1456
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Armenien 18, fol. 15

 

Benozzo Gozzoli, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, Mid-1490s
Washington, National Gallery of Art

By the end of the fifteenth century Italian artists had also abandoned the upright burial in favor of a horizontal one. 

 

Giovanni da Milano, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, 1365
Florence, Church of Santa Croce, Rinuccini Chapel

 

Giovanni di Benedetto and Collaborators, The Raising of Lazarus
From a Missal
Italian (Milan), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 757, fol. 318v

This image falls between both forms.  His Lazarus comes out of a horizontal sarcophagus, but is shown upright and bound in mummy like wrappings.

 

 

Limbourg Brothers (Jean, Pol and Herman), The Raising of Lazarus
 Ffom the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Dutch, c. 1412-1416
Chantilly, Musée Conde
MS 65, fol. 171r

 

The Raising of Lazarus
From a Book of Hours
Belgian (Hainaut), c. 1450-1475
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 G 21, fol. 96v

 

 

The Raising of Lazarus
From Fleur des histoires by Jean Mansel
French, c. 1450-1475
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 56, fol. 36

 

Mary and Martha continue to be included, by the majority of artists.  Sometimes they are shown kneeling in prayerful supplication, sometimes they are shown standing as they plea for their brother.  Often they are shown making signs of grief:  holding their veils to their faces, or shown with open mouths.

Albert van Ouwater, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1455
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

 

Master of Jacques de Luxembourg, The Raising of Lazarus
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1460-1470
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1003, fol. 153v

 

 

 

And they are joined by other figures.  There are the Apostles, of course.  Saint Peter is sometimes shown rendering assistance to Lazarus.  But there are also figures who “assist” in less practical ways, often shown holding their noses or with cloths over their faces for “there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days." (John 11:39).  And there are bystanders, who are shown as skeptical or amazed or both. 

 

 

Maitre de Coetivy, The Raising of Lazarus
French, c. 1460
Paris, Musée du Louvre

 

 

Nicolas Froment, Scenes from the Raising of Lazarus
French, 1462
Florence, Galleria degli' Uffizi

In the left panel Martha pleads for her brother. In the center Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  In the right panel Mary washes the feet of Christ. Other figures may be interpreted as: St. Peter is the man in yellow who is prominent in all three panels, St. John the Evangelist is the man in red who also appears in all three,  Finally, the figure who is seated at the extreme left edge of the right panel, pointing at Mary's action, may be the Evangelist Luke, who also related an incident in which a woman washed the feet of Jesus (Luke 7:36-40).

 

 

Jean Colombe, The Raising of Lazarus
From the Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolphe de Saxe
French (Bourges), c. 1475-1500
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 178, fol. 72v

Geertgen tot Sint Jans, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1480-1484
Paris, Musée du Louvre

 

Simon von Taisten, The Raising of Lazarus
German, c. 1484
Virgen, Obermauern, Zu Unserer Lieben Frau Maria-Schnee

This German image is a bit unusual in showing Lazarus reaching up to grasp Christ's hand. 

 

Juan de Flandes, The Raising of Lazarus
Flemish, c. 1514-1519
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

 

 

Palma il Vecchio, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1514
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

 

The subject of the raising of Lazarus became a popular image for the Office of the Dead, which was often included in the Book of Hours, the prayer book used by most lay Christians in the later part of the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, before the printed prayer book became the norm.  Often shown surrounded by images that reminded the viewer of the decay of death, the raising of Lazarus was a reminder of the Christian hope for the final resurrection.

Simon Marmion, The Raising of Lazarus

From a Book of Hours, Office of the Dead

Flemish, c. 1475-1485

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M 6, fol.100r

 

Master of Sir George Talbot, The Raising of Lazarus
From a Book of Hours, Office of the Dead
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1495-1505
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 390, fol.133v

 

Jean Bourdichon, The Raising of Lazarus
From Grandes heures d'Anne de Bretagne
French (Tours), c. 1503-1508
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9474, fol. 111v

 

Simon Bening, The Raising of Laarus
From the Da Costa Hours, Office of the Dead
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1510-1520
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 399, fol. 226v

 

Guilio Clovio, The Empire of Death and The Raising of Lazarus
From the Farnese Hours
Italian (Rome), 1546
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 69, fol. 79v-80r

 

By the late Renaissance period we call Mannerism images of the raising of Lazarus had become very crowded with subsidiary figures and activity.  However, unlike in some pictures of Biblical actions (for instance, Moses striking the rock, which we looked at recently), the actual subject was never lost in all the clutter.  It was always at the center.

Sebastiano del Piombo (incorporating designs by Michelangelo), The Raising of Lazarustalian, c. 1517-1519

London, National Gallery

 

Giuseppe Salviati, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1540-1542
Venice, Fondazione Querini Stampalia

 

 

Girolamo Muziano, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, 1555
Vatican, Pinacoteca Vaticana

 

Girolamo Sicciolante, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1550-1560
Fontainebleau, Chateau

 

 

Tintoretto, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1579-1581
Venice, Scuola Grande di San Rocco

 

Veronese, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, End of the 16th Century
Poggio a Caiano, Villa Medicea

  

Joachim Wtewael, The Raising of Lazarus
Czech, c. 1590-1600
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts

Giuseppe Cesari, Cavaliere d'Arpino, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, 1592
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica

 

 

Abraham Bloemaert, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1600-1605
Manchester (UK), Manchester Art Gallery

 

 

Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, called Il Morazzone, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1600
Beauvais, MUDO, Musée de l'Oise

 

Hans Rottenhammer, The Raising of Lazarus
German, before 1607
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

 

 

 

One very important development followed the work of the painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (known more usually as Caravaggio).  His paintings, including his Raising of Lazarus, make highly dramatic use of light and dark. Within a decade after his Raising of Lazarus was painted, other artists were using its dramatic lighting to enhance their own paintings of the subject.  And for two hundred years, almost every painting of the subject used highly dramatic effects of light.

Caravaggio, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1608-1609
Messina, Museo Regionale

 

Jose de Ribera, The Raising of Lazarus
Spanish, c. 1616
Madrid, Museo del Prado

 

 

Alessandro Turchi, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, 1617
Rome, Galleria Borghese

 

 

Jan Symonszoon Pynas, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1620
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

 

Guercino, The Raising of Lazaarus
Italian, c. 1619
Paris, Musée du Louvre

 

Salvatore Rosa, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, after 1622
Chantilly, Musée Conde

 

 

Benjamin Cuyp, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1630s
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

 

Jan Lievens, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, 1630
Brighton, Museum and Art Gallery

In this highly dramatic painting Lievens focuses our attention through light onto the huge white shroud being pulled from the grave by an assistant, on Jesus and on the faces of Martha and a man kneeling next to her.  Only the hands of Lazarus can be seen reaching up from the tomb.

 

 

Rembrandt, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1630
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

 

Pietro Novelli, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1635-1640
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

 

Cornelis de Vos, The Raising of Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1640-1651
Belfast, Ulster Museum

 

Carel Fabritius, The Raising Lazarus
Dutch, c. 1642
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodow

 

Rembrandt, The Raising of Lazarus (Small Plate)
Dutch, 1642
Cleveland, Museum of Art

 

Mattia Preti, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, 1650s
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Art Antica

 

 

Sebastien Bourdon, The Raising of Lazarus
French, c. 1650
Dijon, Musée Magnin

 

 

Luca Giordano, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1675
Private Collection

 

 

Jean Jouvenet, The Raising of Lazarus
French, c. 1700
Paris, Musée du Louvre

 

 

Alessandro Magnasco, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, c. 1715-1740
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

 

 

Antonio Balestra, The Raising of Lazarus
Italian, 1733
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery

 

 

Benjamin West, The Raising of Lazarus
American, 1788
Glasgow, Museums Resource Centre (GMRC)

 

 

Felix Auvray, The Raising of Lazarus
French, c. 1825-1830
Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

 

Eugene Deveria, The Raising of Lazarus
Center of Five Panels of the Life of Christ
French, 1835
Pau, Musée des Beaux-Arts

 

In 1857 the subject set for entrants in the French Academy’s competition, the Prix de Rome, was the Raising of Lazarus.  It elicited some very divergent images, some of them still wedded to the light/dark contrasts so common since Caravaggio.  Some shared in the simplified approach to design and storytelling that was emerging in England and Germany in groups like the Pre-Raphaelites and the Nazarenes.  Others pointed the way toward a more naturalistic and/or a more archaeological imagination.

 

Charles Francois Sellier, The Raising of Lazarus
French, 1857
Paris, Ëcole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts

 

 

Hector Leroux, The Raising of Lazarus
French, 1857
Paris, Musée d'Orsay

 

Leon Joseph Florentin Bonnat, The Raising of Lazarus
French, 1857
Bayonne, Musée Bonnat-Helleu

 

 

Many of the images produced in the last half of the nineteenth century show a return to the earliest image of the grave as vertical, although now Lazarus emerges, not from a classical aediculum, but from a more biblically correct rock cut tomb.   However, others continued to use the idea of a horizontal burial, infused with greater archaeological knowledge, due to excavations in the Holy Land.

 

Jean-Jacques Henner, The Raising of Lazarus
French, c. 1860
Paris, Musée Jean-Jacques Henner

Henner's composition is a nearly exact copy of Giotto's work on the same subject from the Arena Chapel in Padua.  There are some variations in pose and coloration.

 

 

 

James Tissot, The Raising of Lazarus
French, c. 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum

 

 

Carl Heinrich Bloch, The Raising of Lazarus
Danish, c. 1890
Copenhagen, Frederiksborg Castle

 

 

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Raising of Lazarus
American, 1896
Paris, Musée d'Orsay

© M. Duffy, 2017

Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

1. Also read at Masses in other cycle years if those preparing for Baptism at Easter Vigil are attending the Mass as part of their group RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) preparation.
2. Evans, Helen. “An Early Christian Sarcophagus from Rome Lost and Found.” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 28, 1993, pp. 77–84