1480
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Passion: The Entombment is a 1480 by Martin Schongauer, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a crowd lowering Christ’s body into a tomb while Mary and John stand to the side, turned away. Schongauer packed every inch with figures—each face twisted in grief or cruelty. The print was copied all over Europe, so the image feels familiar even if you don’t know his name. Look at how he carved deep lines to make shadows leap off the paper without any color. Next, search “sfumato” to see how later artists softened those sharp edges.
Martin Schongauer's series of the Passion of Christ was his largest set of engravings, made around 1480, and extensively copied across Europe. It consists of twelve prints detailing the suffering of Christ in the last days of his life. Schongauer's version focuses on crowded scenes, grotesque physiognomies of Christ's tormentors, and great pathos in the compositions. Here, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist are shown with their back and side to the viewer. Their attention is focused on Christ's body, which is lowered into a sarcophagus by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Mourning…
Martin Schongauer creates a sophisticated visual connection between this scene and that of the Crucifixion by including an empty cross on a hill in the distance.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Martin Schongauer, also known as Martin Schön or Hübsch Martin by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter.
See the richer artist page
