Andrea Busati, The Entombment

Christ’s body has been taken down from the Cross and brought to be entombed by his grief-stricken mourners. His lifeless corpse rests against his mother’s knees. His forehead, still crowned with thorns, seeps blood that trickles along his neck. The Virgin Mary looks down at her son and gently touches his hair and face. The open wound from the soldier’s spear continues to seep blood.

On the right, Mary Magdalene, her long hair uncovered, takes Christ’s hand tenderly in her own and seems to feel for a pulse. Beside her, a holy woman wipes her eyes. Saint John the Evangelist clasps his hands while Nicodemus raises his in despair. Only Joseph of Arimathea, recognisable by his expensive cloth of gold damask clothes, looks to see our reaction to Christ’s death. His acknowledgement of our presence includes and implicates us in the scene, demanding our emotional involvement and dissolving the dividing line between the image and reality, past and present.

The palm trees on the hills tell us that this landscape is the Holy Land, and in the distance the three crosses still stand on Calvary, surrounded by mounted soldiers. The setting sun stains the clouds pink and casts a tinted light over the scene, while figures travel to and from the riverside town, unaware of the momentous event unfolding. A fruiting fig grows from between the rocks of Christ’s cave-like tomb, symbolising his imminent resurrection.

The scene is set back behind a stone parapet that is carved with a delicate antique pattern of scrolling leaves and masks. An unknown figure is outlined in the central circular cartouche, and a piece of paper, or cartellino, is attached to the ledge. The inscription on it has been translated as ‘Andrea Busati, disciple of Giovanni Bellini, made this’, but it is hard to read the second line. Two grieving infant angels sit on the parapet, unable to bear the sight of the dead Christ.

This was formerly considered to be the earliest known work by Sebastiano del Piombo. The figure group is derived from a Lamentation by Cima da Conegliano (Pushkin Museum, Moscow) which has been dated to about 1512. The town and bridge appear in a picture by an unknown Venetian artist, Augustus and the Sibyl of about 1500, the landscape of which derives from a work by Giovanni Bellini. Andrea Busati worked in Venice and was influenced by both Giovanni Bellini and Cima. The intense emotions expressed in the figures’ faces and gestures also reveal the influence of Northern art.