The Raising of Lazarus is a large altarpiece of 1517–1519 by the Italian High Renaissance artist Sebastiano del Piombo, for which Michelangelo supplied drawings for some figures. Intended for Narbonne Cathedral in France, it is now normally in Room 18 of the National Gallery in London, where it is "NG1", the first painting catalogued at the founding of the gallery in 1824.
It was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, then Archbishop of Narbonne and later Pope Clement VII (r. 1523–24), in what was effectively a contest engineered by Michelangelo, using Sebastiano as "a kind of deputy",Freedberg, 111 or "cat's paw",Langmuir, 150 in a rivalry between the two and Raphael, whose Transfiguration (now in the Vatican Pinacoteca) is the same size of and was commissioned for the same cathedral. The verdict of Roman critical opinion was that Raphael's painting won.
According to Michael Levey, the painting is "a tour de force of massed, gesticulating bodies and glittering colour ... Perhaps all the elements have not been quite successfully fused, but the grand manner of the composition is impressive, and in its conscious rhetoric the painting looks forward to the Baroque."Levey, 62
Sebastiano, who had arrived in Rome from Venice in 1511,Lucco may have intended to dazzle the Roman critics with the colouring for which the Venetian School was famous, giving "the greatest and most subtly varied range of colours ever seen in a single painting".NGTB, 36 However, the complicated restoration history of the painting, and aspects of Sebastiano's technique combined with effects of age, have led to a general darkening of the painting, and significant changes in some of the large number of colour shades.NGTB, throughout
Subject and description Lazarus's resurrection from the dead was the most frequently depicted of the miracles of Jesus in medieval and Renaissance art, as both the most remarkable and the easiest to recognize visually, because of the grave-cloths. As well as following the Transfiguration in traditional sequences of the Life of Christ in art,Langmuir, 150, these sequences generally followed the liturgical calendar but the celebrations of both Lazarus and the Transfiguration had variable dates until the end of the Middle Ages the subject was especially appropriate for the cathedral at Narbonne, which had relics of Lazarus. The Medici family, whose name means "doctors" in Italian, were often attracted to subjects showing Christ as a healer (or medicus).Langmuir, 150; Jones & Penny, 238
The account in Chapter 11 of the Gospel of John of the Raising of Lazarus from the dead is followed closely, though different moments in it are combined in the picture. For Sebastiano and his contemporaries, Mary the sister of Lazarus of Bethany was the same person as Mary Magdalene, though today even the Catholic Church agrees with Protestants that Mary of Bethany was a separate person.By coincidence, it was in 1517 that Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples published De Maria Magdalena et triduo Christi disceptatio, his suggestion that the medieval Mary Magdalene was actually three different people in the Bible. She is the figure kneeling in front of Christ, which in the gospels precedes the resurrection.Gould, 242–243
The main moment shown is just after John 11:45 when : "Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go". But in the upper left background a group of Jews and Pharisees are depicted discussing the event, which completes the story in the gospels. The standing female in orange is Martha of Bethany, sister of Lazarus and Mary; in the gospel, before the tomb is opened, she protests that the body will smell, and her gesture suggests she was right.Gould, 242–243; Langmuir, 150
The Twelve Apostles are crowded to the left of Christ and behind him. The younger man standing at the left, seen in profile, is Saint John the Evangelist,NGTB, 35 and the bearded kneeling man at lower left is Saint Peter, given an orange overgarment, as often in art.NGTB, 42 The others are probably not intended to be individually identifiable. By this stage of the High Renaissance, not even Christ is given a halo, making it harder to pick out any specific individuals from the crowd that the gospel account mentions. Michael Levey said the painting was "full of obvious portrait heads", but there has been much much less speculation as to the individuals with inserted likenesses than for Raphael's The School of Athens of a few years earlier.
The painting is signed in Latin "SEBASTIANVS. VENETVS. FACIE|BAT" ("Sebastian the Venetian made this") on the stone platform below Christ.Gould, 242 Born Sebastiano Luciani, after coming to Rome he had become "Sebastiano Veneziano", until in 1531 he became the Keeper of the Seal to the Papacy, and so got the nickname del Piombo thereafter, meaning "of the lead", from his new job title.Langmuir, 150–151; Lucco
Style
The painting was begun some five years after Sebastiano had moved from his native Venice to Rome, and shows that his adaption to a monumental and classical Roman style was effectively complete, though the colours "retain a Venice-like luminosity that enchants the eye". Despite being conceived as a move against Raphael, with the help of Michelangelo, in its general composition it shows a good deal of influence from Raphael, and although the two paintings for Narbonne have only ever been seen together for a few days in 1520, and were both painted in conditions of great secrecy by the rival artists, in many ways they are a well-matched pair, showing how much Sebastiano had absorbed from Raphael.Freedberg, 113–115
The help received from Michelangelo was limited to the main male figures (see below), and the crowd and landscape background was Sebastiano's composition.Freedberg, 113; Langmuir, 150; Gould, 244 The landscape has ruins and a bridge that look like a Roman setting, but the cloudy sky and other aspects suggest a Venetian landscape.
History
In Rome In 1516 Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, then Archbishop of Narbonne and later Pope Clement VII (r. 1523–24), commissioned a Raising of Lazarus from Sebastiano in competition with Raphael's late masterpiece the Transfiguration, commissioned earlier that year. The original declared intention was for both paintings to go to Narbonne Cathedral, which it is unlikely the cardinal ever visited. It seems likely that the idea for what inevitably became a contest was suggested by Michelangelo,Jones & Penny, 238; Langmuir, 150 who the previous year had enlisted Sebastiano "as a kind of deputy for him in painting", with the specific intention of contesting Raphael's primacy in painting in Rome, Michelangelo himself having returned to his backlog of promised projects in sculpture. In addition to being a friend of Sebastiano, he was eager to show up his bitter rival Raphael. The cardinal fell in with this idea.
Vasari, who knew both artists in later years, described the collaboration by saying that the picture was made "sotto ordine e disegno in alcune parti" of Michelangelo, rather vague phrasing that has been much discussed. One translation could be "under the direction and in certain parts to the designs" of Michelangelo, but this and other possibilities leave room for a wide range of interpretations.Gould, 244–245 Sebastiano intended to charge for the painting based on the number of figures in it, a common way of valuing paintings at the time.Jones & Penny, 108
Compositional drawings for the figures of Lazarus and his two attendants were supplied by Michelangelo. In addition to the drawing in the British Museum illustrated here, there are other drawings by Michelangelo there and in Bayonne,British Museum; the other main drawing all of Lazarus and the two men supporting him, except for one of a foot, perhaps relating to Christ.Gould, 243–244 Modern imaging techniques show that a different figure of Lazarus exists in the underdrawing, which was apparently changed to match one of Michelangelo's drawings (illustrated below) while painting was in progress, perhaps when Michelangelo visited Rome in January 1518.M&S, 24, 25 A drawing by Sebastiano seems to contain a sketch for this figure as well as one for the Saint Peter in the painting.M&S, 27
In Frankfurt there is a drawing by Sebastiano of the figure of Martha, which is close to the painted figure.M&S, 23; Gould, 244–245 The existence of more drawings by Michelangelo, now lost, for at least the figure of Christ, has been postulated by some scholars. In addition, there are a number of letters between the artists and others which record the progress of the commission. These reflect that Michelangelo was away from Rome during the period of painting, and would only have seen the half-finished work when he made a visit in January 1518.Gould, 243–244; M&S, 28–33 In particular Leonardo Sellaio was a trusted assistant to Michelangelo, who remained in Rome reporting on progress.NGTB, 26; M&S, 28, 54
Although completed by the start of 1519,Lucco; Freedberg, 113 the completed painting was apparently only exhibited to a wider public in the Vatican in late December 1519 and then again in the following April, before being sent to Narbonne.Gould, 245; Jones & Penny, 238 In the second exhibition, from 12 April 1520, it was shown together with Raphael's Transfiguration. Raphael had died on April 6, and his Transfiguration came straight from being displayed by his body as it lay in state in his studio.Gould, 243; Jones & Penny, 238 In the event, as described by Vasari, both paintings were praised, but the Raphael much preferred, and only the Sebastiano was sent to Narbonne.Lucco; Vasari, "Life of Sebastiano": "These altarpieces, when finished, were publicly exhibited together in the Consistory, and were vastly extolled, both the one and the other; and although the works of Raffaello had no equals in their perfect grace and beauty, nevertheless the labours of Sebastiano were also praised by all without exception."
France and England
In 1722, the Regent of France, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, persuaded the Narbonne authorities to let him have the painting for the Orleans Collection in Paris,Gould, 243–245 which was soon effectively open to the public in the magnificent setting of the Palais-Royal, the Paris seat of the Dukes of Orléans. He died the following year, and the replica replacement promised as part of the purchase was eventually sent around 1750; it was probably by Charles-André van Loo and still hangs in the cathedral.NGBT, 29; Gould, 244
The making of the frames had been a cause of argument between Raphael and Sebastiano. Perhaps as a tactic to prevent a public side-by-side display in Rome, Raphael wanted the frames made on arrival in France, but Sebastiano insisted they be made in Rome.NGTB, 26 Sebastiano evidently prevailed, as below the replica in Narbonne the altar still has part of a "sophisticated" frame in gold on blue that carries above the two festoons the Medici impresa of a diamond ring with feathers rising through it, and the motto SEMPER ("always"), and is presumed to be from Rome. This is now treated as a predella or shelf below the frame of the copy.NGTB, 26; Von Teuffel, Christa Gardner. "Sebastiano Del Piombo, Raphael and Narbonne: New Evidence", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 126, no. 981, 1984, pp. 765–766., JSTOR, gives fuller details.
Probably in 1771, Sebastiano's painting was transferred from wooden panel to canvas and some of the pigments have as a result lost their brightness, most notably the red of Christ's robe, which has turned pink.Langmuir, 150–151; Gould, 245
No doubt because it soon left Rome for the artistic backwater of Narbonne, the earliest print of the painting was remarkably late, in an illustrated account of the Orleans Collection, published in 1786 on the eve of its dispersal. This was by R. De Launay, and in reverse.Gould, 245