The Raising of Lazarus

“Lazarus, come forth!” declaims Jesus in a loud voice, calling the dead man back to life with his right hand, which is raised in a gesture of blessing. Now, Lazarus sits up on the tomb slab, still covered by a winding sheet, and peers, squinting and dazed, at the beholder. His nudity and pale, deathly skin tone are deliberate references to the resurrection of Jesus – for the high priests and Pharisees, Lazarus’ reawakening provided a justification for Christ’s murder. Jesus is accompanied by four of his apostles along with Martha and Mary Magdalene, the sisters of Lazarus – the only women who directly witness the miracle. Peter is accorded special importance: as the first apostle of Jesus, he turns as a proselyte with an expansive gesture towards the group of the high priests, becoming a central figure of the scene alongside Lazarus. The figure who turns towards the grave, and who stands out from the group of splendidly attired priests because of his hat, which is set with precious stones, is probably Caiaphas. The others hold their noses in response to the foul odour of the corpse, now four days old. The rabble forms a dense crowd against the barred door in the background, which provides a view of the innermost precincts of the temple; the Old Testament sculptural decoration on the capitals of the columns in this Romanesque ambulatory identifies this as a Jewish building. Up until this point,
however, the raising of Lazarus had been depicted in landscapes, in accordance with the Gospel of Saint John. Burial places in church choirs were reserved for ecclesiastical dignitaries. That Lazarus is shown buried in such a prominent location in this picture is interpretable as a foreshadowing of his later position as Bishop of Marseille.
This painting is significant in other respects as well, for Karel van Mander already remarks: “This is the sole image by this great old master which time and age have transmitted to us, preserving him from oblivion.” This expression of esteem seems all the more remarkable since Ouwater’s artist-biographer knew the Raising of Lazarus only through a copy painted in grisaille. After the siege of Haarlem (1573), the Spaniards plundered the original. For van Mander, who lived in Haarlem
for 20 years, and founded an academy of painting there in 1587, it was especially important to highlight the tradition of the local school of painting. For him, Albert van Ouwater was the founder of that school, whose members included artists such as Geertgen tot Sint Jans (a student of Ouwater’s), Dierick Bouts, Jan Mostaert, and others. Detectable in this painting, in fact, are stylistic and motivic points of contact with the works of Dierick Bouts, a native of Haarlem. In some instances, these are so close that we must conclude that the two artists were acquainted. They may even have worked
together – not however in Haarlem, but instead in Leuven, where Dierick Bouts’ presence has been verified from 1448 and up until his death in 1475. Albert van Ouwater may have settled in Haarlem in the late 1460s, where he became Geertgen tot Sint Jans’ teacher, executing the Raising of Lazarus there. The motifs which flow into his pictorial invention are derived not just from Bouts, bbut from Rogier van der Weyden as well. In particular, the basic composition, as well as the Romanesque rounded-arch architecture that is so unusual for this pictorial theme, was borrowed by Ouwater from Rogier’s Exhumation of Saint Hubert (London, The National Gallery). KD