Carel Fabritius's The Raising of Lazarus Revisited

Abstract

The Raising of Lazarus residing at the National Museum in Warsaw is one of Carel Fabritius’s earliest works, painted c. 1643 and predating the artist’s other works of biblical and mythological subject matter. In 2003-04, the painting underwent study (Elżbieta Rosłoniec, NMW Laboratory) and conservation (Grzegorz Janczarski, NMW Easel Painting Conservation Studio). The process of cleaning the painting’s surface of its dulled varnish and removing old retouches and overpaintings revealed the details of a background with a roughly rendered forest landscape. Showing an open view onto a landscape, Fabritius introduced an innovation challenging the etchings and paintings of Rembrandt and Jan Lievens. His innovation expresses a literal interpretation of the Gospel (in line with the Protestant principle of a literal reading of Scripture) and relates to the topos of a “speaking picture.” The work is an embodiment of the theoretical concepts passed down by Rembrandt to his pupils, combining the categories of Ordening (ordinantie) and inventie – the composition of figures in space and invention. Physicochemical analysis of the painting indicates that Fabritius faithfully followed the technical lessons learned from Rembrandt and shows that the palette of colours utilised by the artist was in fact rather diverse, and that the impression of a monochromatic dark-brown palette was the result of dulling. The cleaning work performed on the painting was successful in restoring its former vividness.