Wrapped in pale cloth from head to foot, he stands before the tomb.
Bible in art · John
The Raising of Lazarus
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
A. Ligny cut this dark plate for Doré’s Bible of 1866. Almost the whole block is cut in close, dark lines, so that the few white areas leap out.
Inside a rocky cave, before the stone door of a tomb, Lazarus stands wrapped from head to foot in pale cloth, like a ghost. Above on the rocks Jesus raises His arm toward the roof of the cave. Those around Him react: one kneels, two throw up their hands, and a man rushes down the steps shielding his eyes.
From the text
- “Jesus lifted His eyes upward” (John 11:41)
- He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43)
- Lazarus came out “with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth” (John 11:44)
The artist’s own
- A tomb with a built stone doorway inside a deep cave
- Lazarus as a tall shrouded shape that seems to shine in the dark
- The onlookers in fear and alarm, one running away
Details
Lazarus
Jesus
Standing high on the rocks, He raises His arm.
Running
A man shields his eyes and hurries down the steps.
The tomb
A doorway of heavy stone posts and beams opens into the dark.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.