3-061-262 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Dives and Lazarus, c1500. Miniature showing Dives, feasting with his wife and approached by Lazarus, in a cityscape, followed in the lower border by Dives tormented by demons and watched by the soul of Lazarus, which is held by God in heaven, and decorated initial 'D'(ilexi), at the beginning of the Office of the Dead. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells of an unnamed rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. When both die, the rich man goes to Hell and implores Abraham to send Lazarus from his bosom to warn the rich man's family from sharing his fate. Abraham replies, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." From a Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Tilliot Hours').