On the Monday of Holy Week the Gospel at today’s Mass recalls that six days before the Passover Jesus ‘came to Bethania, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus raised to life. And they made him a supper there: and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that were at table with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.’
The amazement of a man brought back from death and a house filled with the scent of expensive perfume, must have stunned the onlookers, all but Judas who complained of the price of the ointment. In this panel from early sixteenth century Valencia, our eyes are certainly dazzled by the gold ground and the richness of the fine clothes in which they are dressed, and the donor of this panel clearly did not count the cost when commissioning such an opulent image of these three close friends of Jesus.
The Arts of Golden Age Spain and the Hispanic World 