The Resurrection of Lazarus

Juan de Flandes came from the Low Countries to work as court painter to Isabella of Castile. She died in 1504, and he spent his last years on church commissions in Palencia. The Prado dates this panel between 1514 and 1519, and 1519 is the year he died in that city. It was one of eight scenes on an altarpiece for the church of San Lazaro, paid for by don Sancho de Castilla, who had been tutor to the queen's only son. The altarpiece was taken apart and sold after the Spanish Civil War. Four of its panels went to Washington, and the Spanish State bought these four in 1952. Lazarus is caught at the moment he sits up in the opened tomb, his eyes still dark and unfocused, while one of his sisters reaches towards him and a skull lies in the earth at his feet.