The Raising of Lazarus

Jacopo Tintoretto ran a busy workshop in Venice, specializing in dramatic, complex religious paintings, which he produced at incredible speed. This crowded composition, with its daring foreshortening and elongated figures, is consistent with Tintoretto’s style. However, the overall quality of the execution suggests the work is by studio assistants rather than the master himself. The subject is the biblical story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. A throng looks on as Lazarus, four days dead, emerges from his stone coffin. Lazarus became a protector saint of the sick, especially victims of the plague, and he was popular in Venice. This picture might be associated with the plague outbreak of 1576, which killed some 50, 000 Venetians, one-third of the city’s population.