Resurrection of Lazarus

In June of 1461 a French painter signed and dated the outside of this triptych, and that signature makes it his earliest known work. Nicolas Froment painted in the northern manner, all sharp detail and unsparing faces, which is exactly why it stands out among the Italian panels around it. The man who ordered it was Francesco Coppini, a bishop from Prato who spent those years shuttling through Flanders, England and France as a legate for Pope Pius II. He wanted a Flemish-style altarpiece and carried the taste for it back toward Tuscany. The central panel raises Lazarus from the tomb. The wings show Christ met by the sisters Martha and Mary, and his feet washed in the house of the Pharisee. Close the triptych and you find Coppini himself, kneeling in prayer with two servants before the Madonna.