The Raising of Lazarus: small Plate

The present print, executed in 1642, depicts the miraculous story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1–44), considered one of Christ’s most extraordinary and dramatic miracles. Rendered in a sketch-like etching style, Rembrandt sets the scene within a jagged cave, with some buildings in the background suggestive of a city nearby. By creating tonal contrasts within the image through the effective use of hatching, the artist focuses the viewer’s attention on the collective emotional response from the crowd gathered around the figure of Christ, including the resurrected man's sisters Martha and Mary. The onlookers gaze down at Lazarus in shock and amazement, whose loosely etched face and shoulders emerge from his tomb, himself looking no less surprised. The present first state is the only life-time iteration of this print, before it was reworked by another hand, possibly Claude-Henri Watelet.