Venetian School, Diptych of the Anastasis and the Resurrection of Lazarus
13th-14th century
Galleria Regionale, Palermo, Sicily
On the right Jesus points to Lazarus, who emerges from his tomb. The tomb is pictured as both a monumentum and a sarcophagus set in the ground. Mary of Bethany kneels at Jesus' feet while her sister Martha looks to the miracle. The man in red beside Lazarus holds his nose in anticipation of the smell.
The left panel complements the resurrection of Lazarus with that of Christ: an entombment image in the upper register and an Anastasis in the lower. The ruptured doors conventional in Anastasis images are behind Christ's left foot, which with his right treads upon Satan as he draws Adam out of a cave representing Hades.
On the right in the Anastasis panel are three men who are not in the cave. The two in front are most likely Enoch and Elijah, who were taken up to Heaven during Old Testament times and told their stories in the Anastasis section of the Gospel of Nicodemus. They also appear in
this icon
in similar dress, similarly separate from those awaiting redemption, and similarly gesturing toward Christ. The haloed man behind them is John the Baptist. The Nicodemus has him in the cave with the others awaiting redemption, but here he seems to be included as a doubling of Elijah. Jesus identifies John with Elijah in Matthew 11:14 and 17:12, and so does the angel who prophesies to John's father Zechariah in Luke 1:17.
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Photographed at the Galleria by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.