This impressive arched print is one of the largest of Rembrandt's compositions in print, and in manner and degree of finish emulates a painting, much in the way the prints by various engravers after Rubens' altarpieces do.
Whilst Christ physically dominates the picture space, the emotional focus of the composition is the reaction of the bystanders, Lazarus's sisters Mary and Martha amongst them. The plate went through several revisions, the chief of them being to Martha, in the lower right corner. Initially she was shown recoiling from the figure, but in the third state he made her lean forward, bringing her into closer association with the other figures. The present fifth state is the last life-time state and shows the print as Rembrandt intended it, before it was reworked by printer-publishers who later obtained the plate.