#The raising of lazarus series

Where can Giotto's Painting be Found Today?.Despite that, many in the present day still love to refer back to the great Renaissance paintings, such as Raising of Lazarus by Giotto di Bondone from 1303-1305. This passage would then continue onwards for centuries to come, though in recent years there has been a reduced impact of religion within western art, in part because of how society has become interested in other interests. Indeed, the likes of Giotto would already have come across examples of where artists from previous centuries had covered Christian content, and would then take elements of those depictions and add some of their own innovations on top.

Typically, artists will be attracted to any themes that offer emotion, where they can really create an impact within the painting or sculpture, and the Bible actually hosts a large number of passages that could be used in this way.

Raising of Lazarus would appear regularly within these bodies of work, and has become a well known element of Christian art.

#The raising of lazarus series

It would become fairly common later in the Renaissance to produce series of works related to the life of Christ. It also allowed him new commissions, with news of this display spreading across Italy. Many of these follow-up pieces made use of relatively similar compositions, suggesting that he was satisfied with the way in which the chapel interior was decorated in the early 14th century. Some of the themes covered within this cycle of frescoes would then be re-visited later on in his career, allowing us to see how he would tweak his ideas over time. He also made use of stunning gold paint but this was not prevalent within the Scrovegni Chapel, where tones of blue dominated throughout both his series on Mary and Christ. The faces of his portraits would carry more emotion and his figures also more closely matched what we would see in real life. His perspectives were not so flat, and his colours far brighter. Many traditional approaches to art found within the medieval period would be moved on from, with this artist being at the forefront of the transition. Giotto brought about changes within Italian art, starring as he did within the Proto-Renaissance. The passage itself tells us of the importance of faith in God, and the rewards that this can bring for those who commit themselves to his word. The story of Lazarus provided an opportunity for him to display a dramatic moment from the Bible, where one of Jesus's followers is resurrected from the dead. Certain stylistic touches run throughout the entire series and despite employing a large number of assistants for many of the tasks in this considerable commission, Giotto himself was still able to keep a clear style which persisted throughout the cycle of frescoes. The cycle itself is regarded as his finest achievement, and within that, The Raising of Lazarus is considered one of the specific highlights. He would do similar with Mary too, before finishing off the interior with several more designs to fit the unique architecture. One section of the project would concentrate on the life of Christ, with around two dozen artworks capturing various episodes from the Bible. The scene displayed here was just one of a large number of frecoes produced by the artist for the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy in the very early 14th century.