Getty Museum
The Entombment
Creator
Simon BeningFlemish Illuminator · 1483–1561
All works by this person →One of the most celebrated painters of Flanders in the 1500s, Simon Bening was hailed by Portuguese art critic Francisco da Hollanda as the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe. In addition to producing books for powerful aristocrats such as Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Bening worked for a group of international royal patrons including Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infan
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1525–1530
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf
- Culture
- Flemish
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In this miniature, presented as though seen through the frame of an arched doorway, Christ's family and friends say their final goodbyes and place Christ's body in a tomb. Sadness fills the scene, evident not only in the faces of the mourners but also in the gray tones of the gloomy gothic structure. The stormy skies in the border of the facing page reinforce the somber effect. The tenderness with which the mourners treat Christ's body evokes a sympathetic response in the viewer. Devotional treatises of the period would have asked the reader to imagine the kind of details seen in the miniature: the man on the left lowering Christ's legs into the tomb, the woman behind him who kisses his hand one last time, and Saint John comforting the Virgin.
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