Opwekking van lazarus 1790

This is an etching of the Raising of Lazarus, made by an anonymous Dutch artist. The scene, framed by a fictive stone monument, shows Lazarus emerging from his tomb at Christ’s command. The image is designed to teach its viewers about scripture. But just as importantly, it reflects the visual culture of the Dutch Republic. We see here the Dutch artistic interest in realism and in the everyday. Lazarus doesn’t rise in glory. Instead, he emerges, blinking and confused, from the tomb, a man interrupted. The other figures in the image are also rendered naturalistically. It is this humanism that characterizes the Dutch Baroque. These kinds of images were widely circulated, and through these, the Dutch developed their sense of themselves and their place in the world. A deeper understanding of this etching could be achieved by looking into the history of Dutch printmaking, popular religion, and the art market. All of these shape the image before us.