Die Erweckung des Lazarus

Janssens's Raising of Lazarus of 1607, in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, depicts one of Christ's most dramatic miracles — the resurrection of Lazarus from the tomb four days after his death, as described in John 11. The subject was particularly significant for Counter-Reformation painters because it provided the most explicit pre-Christian evidence for bodily resurrection, the doctrine at the center of Catholic-Protestant disputes over the afterlife. Janssens paints the subject three years after his return from Italy, when his synthesis of Roman compositional lessons and Flemish naturalism was reaching confident maturity. The dramatic potential of the subject — a living man emerging from a tomb, the crowd's astonishment, the overcoming of death's finality — suited Janssens's Caravaggist tendencies toward physical drama and psychological shock.

Oil on canvas with the dramatic crowd composition organized around the central miracle: Lazarus emerging from the tomb, Christ commanding with an authoritative gesture, and the crowd reacting in waves of astonishment that recede toward the picture's edges. Janssens uses a high viewpoint or elevated stage to make the figure of Lazarus — bandaged, ascending from darkness — the undeniable visual focus. Light falls on the resurrected figure with special intensity, suggesting divine sanction for the miracle.