DUCCIO di Buoninsegna
(b. ca. 1255, Siena, d. 1319, Siena)

Raising of Lazarus (scene 9)

1308-11
Tempera on wood, 44 x 46 cm
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

This panel is on the back predella of the Maestà.

In the presence of Martha and Mary, as well as several onlookers, Christ orders the dead man to emerge from his tomb, alive. On the bottom right of the scene is what remains of a fairly drastic change of mind. Originally the tomb was a horizontal sarcophagus placed at the foot of the hill on which Lazarus was probably sitting. The result was evidently not to the artist's satisfaction and the sarcophagus was transformed into a sepulchre dug out of the rock. This change also affected the resurrected figure, which as a consequence assumes a peculiar oblique position. The spontaneous gesture of the character sitting beside the open tomb and holding his nose because of the smell is remarkably lifelike.