Entombment

The burial scene unfolds against a rocky, sombre landscape with a sky shrouded in grey clouds. At the centre of the composition, the pale body of Christ lies on a cloth, carried by Saint John the Evangelist on the left and Saint Nicodemus on the right. Behind them, Joseph of Arimathea, who offered his tomb for Christ’s burial, supports Christ's left arm, leaning over him. In the foreground, to the right, Mary Magdalene kneels, her hands clasped in prayer. Beside her, Abenadar, a Roman soldier who witnessed Christ's martyrdom and was one of the first converts, leans forward. In the background, Mary mourns the death of her son, accompanied by women who can be identified as her sisters: Mary Salome and Mary of Clopas. This painting is modelled on a Renaissance reproductive print depicting Federico Barocci’s The Entombment of Christ from 1582, painted for the Church of the Holy Cross in Senigallia, Italy. Barocci’s expressive composition, based on intersecting diagonal lines defined by the arrangement of the figures, became a popular template for altarpieces in Northern Europe. The Szczecin version, created by an unknown Pomeranian guild painter in the 17th century, features slight modifications to the original. The grey silhouette of a building inspired by the Palace of Urbino lacks the tower helmets seen in the original, while only the bases of three crosses are visible on the hill. In the lower-left corner, a crown of thorns lies on the ground, but the instruments of Christ's Passion, present in Barocci's work, are absent. The background is notably darker than in the Italian original, and the clothing features more varied and contrasting colours, juxtaposing vibrant reds and yellows with cool blues and greens. Despite these differences, which result from using a print as the model, the regional artist preserved the dynamism of the Mannerist original in their version. Justyna Bądkowska