Cleveland Museum of Art

Christ with Joseph of Arimathea

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo

Date

c. 1525

Medium

oil on wood

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

After the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea obtained permission to bury Christ’s body in Joseph’s own tomb. Aside from an amorphous, cloudy sky, Savoldo eliminated the background entirely and reduced the narrative to two monumental figures, brought to the front of the picture plane. These qualities surely had a great impact on Caravaggio, who initially trained in Northern Italy, where Savoldo spent his career. This work originally hung over a large altarpiece, which explains the unusual perspective, the panel’s horizontal shape, and the figures’ position above the viewer. This panel originally crowned the largest painting Savoldo ever made for a public setting.

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