The Resurrection of Lazarus, with a Couple of Donors and their Daughter

In John's Gospel, Lazarus has been dead for four days when Christ reaches his tomb at Bethany. Geertgen fits the whole episode onto one panel. Far in the background, Lazarus's sisters are sending for Christ. In front, the miracle happens before a crowd.

The couple kneeling at the edge are the people who paid for it. The Louvre sees the panel as an independent picture for a family's private devotion, perhaps a memorial for their chapel, rather than part of an altarpiece. For a long time the couple seemed to be there alone. Then a restoration in 1985 and 1986 uncovered a small girl kneeling in prayer at the lower right, painted over at some unknown date, and it also freed one of Christ's feet from a second, differently angled foot probably added in the 17th century. The small dog nearby most likely stands for fidelity.

Tree-ring dating of the wood agrees with a date around 1480 to 1485. In the 19th century the Montpellier historian Jules Renouvier found the painting in Spain, and the French state bought it from his nephew in 1902.