The Entombment of Christ

In this powerful painting, a diagonal cascade of figures descends, carrying the limp body of Christ towards a bare stone slab. Rather than a moment of transfiguration, this is a scene of profound mourning, with emotions ranging from the raw grief of Mary of Clopas, her arms flung wide, to the subdued sorrow of the Virgin Mary, and finally to the quiet stillness of death itself. The body of Jesus is not the ethereal, bony figure often depicted, but that of a muscled laborer, his thick limbs and visible veins emphasizing a tangible humanity. Created for the second chapel on the right in Santa Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome, this work exemplifies the Counter-Reformation's call for art that moved viewers through intense emotional realism. The painting was universally admired by critics of its time and has been widely copied by subsequent artists.