Resurrection of Lazarus

This tall altarpiece was made for the main altar of the Mocenigo family chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Carità, here in Venice. That fact is closer than it sounds, because when Napoleon's rule suppressed the religious houses the Carità complex itself became the new art academy, so the church this picture once served is part of the building that now holds it. The canvas took a longer road home. It was taken to Paris with other Venetian works and only returned in 1815. Leandro treats the raising of Lazarus, Christ calling a dead man out of the tomb, in his father Jacopo's manner, though with a cooler, sharper colour in place of the older painter's dim, twilight tone. It stands over four metres high, sized for the wall it was meant to fill.