Departure of Christ from Mary, with Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus

A farewell the gospels do not narrate

The recorded title is long: the departure of Christ from Mary, with Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. No leave-taking between mother and son is described in the four gospels. The scene entered painting through later devotional literature, which supplied the parting before the last journey to Jerusalem that the narrative had left out, and the sisters of Lazarus were drawn in because their house at Bethany lies on that road.

Where it falls in the cycle

At the seam between the ministry and the Passion. Behind it are the years of teaching and the raising of Lazarus; ahead of it the entry into Jerusalem and everything that follows within the week. Because the episode is an interpolation, its position is argued from the geography of the journey rather than from a chapter and verse.

The record

The catalogue gives Correggio, 1518, and the National Gallery, London, UK. It measures 87 x 77 cm, close to square and small enough for a private room rather than an altar. The style is entered as High Renaissance and the artist as Italian; the subject fields class the work as a group composition and as religious. The measured palette reads as ochre and red. The entry records no commission and no earlier owner, so none is stated.