The Raising of Lazarus

This painting was probably part of the predella (baseboard) of a large altarpiece, later dismantled. Its theme is well suited to a position over the altar, where the miracle of transubstantiation—bread and wine into flesh and blood—was performed.

Christ’s raising of Lazarus from the dead was understood as an emblem of bodily resurrection and eternal life, symbolized in the liturgy by the Host.