The Resurrection of Lazarus

The raising of Lazarus; Christ crowned with a halo above him, surrounded by people expressing grief, surprise or joy, representation of the Holy family in the right on the middle ground, and perhaps of St John the Baptist as the nude figure in the upper part.

Etching with stipple, circa 1612/1616, lettered with production detail: 'Bellange Eques In. Incidebat'.

Magnificent work, printed on contemporary laid paper with “bunch of grapes” watermark (Griffiths & Hartley 11), trimmed to the platemark, signs of folds perfectly restored, in very good conditions.

Not a single painting by Jacques de Bellange, Royal Painter in the court of Charles III of Lorena since 1602, has been preserved nowadays, while we have forty-eight prints of a very high quality for realization and invention. The graphic style of this engraver is absolutely unique.

Impossible not to recognize a work of Bellange, while it’s very difficult to study his artistic progress for his technique never changed. He works as engraver only for a few years, from 1610 until his death, starting at relatively mature age. His characteristics are: impossible prospective, anatomical errors, exaltation of passion, religion and sensuality. His mannerism has been deeply influenced by Parmigianino and by Ventura Salimbeni, whom he probably met during his trip to Italy.

“The story of the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, is told in Saint John's Gospel: 'Jesus ... cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.'

As was common in art, Bellange shows the moment when the cloths are removed from Lazarus, causing those around to hold their noses or avert their faces from the stench. The two most prominent women are probably intended as Martha and Mary. The group on the right in the middle-ground appear to represent the Holy Family with the infant Jesus. The naked figure seated on the raised ground looks at this group and seems to be drawing their attention to the miracle in the foreground. He may represent John the Baptist in his role as the prophet of Christ's divinity and redemptive sacrifice ('Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' John 2:29). The raising of Lazarus was often represented as a prophetic type of the Resurrection.

Most writers agree that the achievement of this work, both formally and technically, suggests that it is a late work, perhaps (according to Walch and Reed) Bellange's last plate, or at least the last of the large plates. This is one of the instances where Thuillier, in defining the late style of this plate, finds it necessary to suggest that it prefigures the post-mannerist styles prevalent in Paris in the 1620s and 1630s. While agreeing that the composition is more unified, the combinations of figure groups more fluid, than in earlier prints, we cannot accept Thuillier's distinction between the figure style in this print and the group of Apostles that he dates earlier than the rest, but which we would prefer to define as late. In fact there are close correspondences between this plate and those Apostles. The figure of Christ, for instance, is not so far from Walch 45, while the back views of the figures at left and right (particularly the former) recall other of the Apostle series in their twisted bodies and crossed feet: hardly the choice of an artist seeking an escape from the extremities of such poses. Moreover, like certain of the Apostles, the main figures in this print seems to exist in a convincing space, rather than being disposed on the surface of a crowded composition as was the case in the other large prints).

Reed draws comparisons with several sixteenth-century versions of this popular subject, noting that it is closest in composition to Northern Mannerist types, although the comparison with Muller's engraving after Bloemart (Bartsch 27), suggested by Walch, only provides vague similarities. The smaller figures on the raised background seem to derive, with variations, from a pen-and-ink drawing in the Louvre (Thuillier 43a), which Bellange may have made in preparation for the print. The plate has the same engraved signature as Walch 17, and it may well have been made at the same time: the treatment of Lazarus is particularly close to the rendering of Christ in that print. Unlike Walch 17, this plate is not known in a later state with Le Blond's address, so although the inscriptions were probably added at the same time, the two plates were presumably separated early on in their history. As with several other plates, the margin at the bottom (trimmed off in this impression) remained blank (Text by Craig Hartley from 'Jacques Bellange, Printmaker of Lorraine', BM 1997, cat.16)

Bibliografia

Walch 1971, Die Radierungen des Jacques Bellange n. 47; Robert-Dumesnil 1835-71, Le Peintre-Graveur Français n. 6; Craig Hartley in 'Jacques Bellange, Printmaker of Lorraine', 1997, cat.16.