Duccio's Raising of Lazarus Reexamined

Abstract

This article explores issues raised by the extensive pentimento at the lower right of Duccio's Raising of Lazarus and offers new evidence from infrared reflectography and X-radiography about Duccio's creative process. Initially, Lazarus was shown arising diagonally from his horizontal sarcophagus, a motif undoubtedly derived from Northern sources, such as the early thirteenth-century stained-glass image of the resurrected Lazarus in Chartres Cathedral. Subsequently, Duccio revised his bold new format in favor of the traditional Byzantine formula. In his revision, he introduced the figure of a tomb attendant, now missing, whose presence is recorded in adaptations of this subject by his successors, Barna and Giovanni di Paolo. Other versions, including Giotto's Raising at Padua, are also examined, establishing the unique qualities of Duccio's Raising, which was a model for later Sienese versions for more than a century.

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Notes on contributors

Ruth Wilkins Sullivan

Ruth Wilkins Sullivan is Research Curator at the Kimbell Art Museum. She was a contributor to the publication In Pursuit of Quality: The Kimbell Art Museum, 1987, and is the author of two earlier articles on aspects of Duccio's Maestà that have appeared in this journal.