The Resurrection of Lazarus

This canvas is almost four metres high and more than six and a half wide, and it was one of four made for a single church. Between 1703 and 1706 Jouvenet painted a set of scenes from the life of Christ for the Benedictine priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris, each on this enormous scale, and he signed and dated this one 1706.

The story is from John's Gospel. Lazarus has lain four days in the tomb when Christ comes to his grave, lifts his hand and calls him out, and the crowd of mourners and onlookers presses in around them.

Louis XIV admired the series enough to have it woven into tapestries at the Gobelins, the royal workshop, between 1712 and 1716. One set of those hangings was given to Peter the Great when the Russian tsar visited France.