The Raising of Lazarus

This drawing was identified by Sir Denis Mahon as one of Guercino's preparatory studies for The Raising of Lazarus (Paris, Louvre inv. 1139), a painting dated ca. 1619 . Another composition study connected with a painting of this subject, with numerous differences in design with respect to the Museum's drawing and the finished painting, is in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. H 45: see Tuyll Van Serooskerken 1991, cat. no. 5). The outline of forms and the use of wash are extremely descriptive, as is typical of composition studies of this period. A pen and ink study for an individual figure connected with the Louvre painting is A Seated Woman (Royal Library, Windsor inv. 2484: see Mahon and Turner 1989, no. 10)

The articulation of the composition is complete and relief-like as in comparable autograph pen and ink drawings from the same period, for example studies for the now lost painting of Jael and Sisera of c.1619-1620 (see Turner and Plazzotta 1991, nos. 23, 24): Jael and Sisera (Paris, Institute Neerlandais, inv. no. 1050) and Jael Showing Barak the Corpse of Sisera and Barak finds Jael with the Corpse of Sisera (both Collection Denis Mahon, on loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).