Resurrection of Lazarus

Simone Barabino
Murta, Genoa, c. 1585 – Milan, 1629
Date: c. 1619-1625/29
Dimensions: 185.5 x 144.5 cm
Materials: Oil on two pieces of linen taffeta
This is a painting by the Genoese artist Simone Barabino, a late work executed during the artist’s period of maturity — his finest period — around 1619–1625, when he was in Milan. Barabino’s works from this period are characterized by their plastic refinement and the purity of their forms, and are executed using a bold and profoundly innovative technique, halfway between Mannerism and the Baroque. The work shows echoes of the Lombard Mannerist school — especially in the palette, with a beautiful iridescence — combined with loans from Genoese painting of the Counter-Reformation. These echoes can be associated with the influence of il Bergamasco or Luca Cambiaso, complemented by that of Camillo Procaccini, with whom Barabino worked during his stay in Milan. The compositional balance of the painting, as well as its colour control, provide points of connection with a Resurrection of Lazarus by Rubens (c. 1620). It is undoubtedly a work of good quality and fine execution, which formed part of the collection of Manuel López Cepero y Ardila, a canon of Seville with a liberal outlook and one of the most important figures in Andalusia in the early 19th century. In this creation, Barabino appears as a painter imbued with the Milanese artistic culture of the time, which canonized the Lombard school of the first third of the 17th century. It is currently in a good state of conservation.