![]() ![]() The landscapes in the background conjure up the fairy-tale world of northern European courts in the 15th century. His meticulous depiction of costumes, objects and bizarre details such as the fly on a table laid for a meal turn the religious scene into a constant source of wonder. Influenced by Flemish painting, Nicolas Froment tends to characterise his figures’ features almost to the point of caricature. ![]() ![]() The triptych probably came into the ownership of the Medici family and was subsequently donated to the Franciscan convent of Bosco ai Frati, where it remained until the convent was suppressed under Napoleon. Coppini was stripped of his titles and his assets were confiscated. Paul’s Without the Walls, outside Rome, where he died in 1464. Coppini donned the Benedictine habit and spent the last few months of his life in the monastery of St. Coppini’s support for King Edward IV of the House of York, who was crowned in 1461 after deposing King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster, was disapproved of by the pope who recalled Coppini to Rome and stripped him of his bishopric and his assets in 1463. Appointed Bishop of Terni in 1458, he was sent by Pope Pius II to Flanders and to France the following year to collect "Peter’s pence", after which he travelled to England in an effort to broker peace between the Houses of York and Lancaster. Born into a humble Prato family in 1402, Francesco embarked on a career in the Church and became a skilled lawyer, whilst also earning recognition for his diplomatic talents. The realistic portrait on the back of the right-hand panel of the triptych reveals the features of this enterprising, cultured and ambitious prelate. The triptych, depicting the Raising of Lazarus, Froment’s oldest known work to date, was painted for a prelate from Prato named Francesco Coppini who lived in Flanders, England and France from 1459 to 1462, performing various tasks for Pope Pius II Piccolomini. It was painted by Nicolas Froment, a painter born in Picardy, of whom only a handful of paintings has survived and who is known chiefly for his work in Provence, from at least 1465, in the service of King René d’Anjou. An inscription below bears Nicolas Froment’s signature and the date 1461. On the back of the panels, the donor, Francesco Coppini, accompanied by another two unidentified figures, is portrayed on the right-hand panel as he prays before the Virgin and Child, depicted on the left-hand panel. In the left-hand leaf, Martha approaches Jesus to apprise Him of her brother’s death in the centre, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, triggering an emotional response from Marta, Mary and His apostles and in the right-hand leaf, the story ends with the feast in the house of Simon the Pharisee, where Mary honours the Saviour by anointing His feet. John clearly saw the Lazarus event as the last great deed Jesus performed as proof of his divinity before his arrest and crucifixion.The triptych illustrates the story of Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary. However, Luke’s account of this event is much briefer than John’s Lazarus story, and it happens much earlier in Jesus’ life. In Luke 7:14-15, Jesus raises the dead son of a widow, with the wording of Luke (‘And he that was dead sat up’) being echoed by John’s ‘And he that was dead came forth’. Whatever the truth of it, there are examples elsewhere in the Gospels of Jesus raising the dead. It’s possible (as the authors of the Dictionary of the Bible suggest) that John is expanding the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke’s gospel (in which Lazarus, the humble beggar, goes to heaven but the rich man does not). ![]() The resurrection of Lazarus, stained glass window by Guillaume de Marcillat, Cathedral of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. But only John mentions the story of Jesus raising Lazarus (the other one) from the dead. Resurrection of Lazarus, central panel of the triptych of the resurrection of Lazarus, ca 1530, by Aertgen van Leyden. Luke (chapter 16) tells of Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, but this Lazarus (a beggar) isn’t the one whom Jesus raised from the dead. They appear to have been different people. ![]()
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