The Raising of Lazarus 1715 - 1740

Alessandro Magnasco painted "The Raising of Lazarus" sometime between 1687 and 1749 using oil on canvas. Magnasco was from Genoa, and this dynamic painting brings into tension several social structures of the time. Firstly, it portrays a religious miracle. In the painting, Jesus Christ brings Lazarus back from the dead while onlookers express a variety of emotional responses from awe to terror. It also reflects the culture of art at the time. The canvas is crowded, full of figures displaying painterly techniques, like dramatic light and shadow to express emotion, with a tendency to asymmetry and exaggeration for effect. This Baroque style became widespread across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. For the art historian, Magnasco’s painting demonstrates the importance of visual conventions for understanding the artist’s culture and his place in it. We should use all resources available to us: stylistic analysis, biographical details and an awareness of the social function of religious institutions.