Ally Kateusz, PhD

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Disappearing Women at the Raising of Lazarus

Mary and the Women at the Raising of Lazarus from Ally Kateusz

The very earliest scene of the Raising of Lazarus is on a third-century pre-Constantinian sarcophagus called the “Jonas Sarchopagus,” because it also has a beautifully sculpted scene of Jonas in the mouth of a whale. Today that sarcophagus is in the Vatican Museum. This ancient scene of the Raising of Lazarus contains a remarkable gender-parity that is absent in all later examples. This sculptor carved three men (Jesus, Lazarus, plus one) — and three women (Mary at Jesus’s feet, a woman standing next to Mary, plus an arms-raised female Orante standing between Jesus and Lazarus). As this PowerPoint shows, after Constantine typically only one woman remains in the scene. These post-Constantinian sculptors depicted her smaller and smaller, as if she were a child instead of a woman.

Picture of the 7 women frescoe

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