Description
The Raising of Lazarus in the Magdalen Chapel revisits a subject Giotto had treated shortly before in Padua, but develops it within a larger and more open setting. Christ appears at the left, while Lazarus stands at the right still wrapped in his burial cloths and attended by figures near the tomb. Martha, Mary and the witnesses occupy the space between them and structure the narrative through their reactions.
The scene is organized around the relationship between Christ's gesture and Lazarus's figure. Jesus's command seems to cross the pictorial space and reach the rigid body of the revived man. The intervening figures turn this connection into a sequence of gazes and movements, so that the miracle is perceived through human response as well as supernatural action.
