Dirk Bouts, The Entombment

Christ’s body, wrapped in a white shroud, is being placed in a tomb by his grief-stricken family and followers. The Virgin Mary, clasping his wrist, seems on the edge of collapse; John the Evangelist holds her up. Behind them are Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, one wiping tears from her eyes, the other holding her veil to her mouth. Mary Magdalene supports Christ’s legs and gazes sadly at his face. Two secret converts to Christianity – Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea – lower Christ’s body into the tomb. This is the only surviving image of the Entombment by Dirk Bouts, and is a quiet expression of intense emotion.

It is a rare survivor of a once common type, a picture painted on cloth rather than wooden panels. Made in large numbers in the Netherlands in the fifteenth century, few exist today. They are notoriously delicate and this one is in remarkably good condition. Muted tones and a chalky appearance were characteristic of these cloth paintings, but time has also shaped the image we see today. A film of dirt, which covers the entire surface, cannot be removed, and thinly-applied layers of paint have worn away in some places, revealing now-discoloured linen. Colours have changed and faded: the Virgin’s cloak is now brownish, and Joseph of Arimathea’s tabard, once pale blue, appears green.

But a hint of the original colour can be seen along the top edge, where a strip of brighter blue sky has been protected by an old frame. The rust-stained holes show where the linen was tacked to a frame, perhaps soon after the painting was made. Along the bottom edge we can see the remains of a painted border. Coloured borders are often found on paintings on linen. It seems that linen cloths were stretched on temporary supports to be painted. Once finished they were cut along the outer edges of these borders. Some were then mounted on coarser fabric and hung like tapestries. Others were attached to panels, and a frame was then laid on top of the painted border. The Entombment must have been given a frame rather smaller than intended.

Netherlandish painting was in great demand across Europe at this time, and those on cloth were especially popular as they could be rolled up for transportation and then mounted once they reached their destination. Bouts probably made this painting for export to Italy, possibly Venice, where it remained until the nineteenth century. It was possibly, although not certainly, part of a polyptych, other parts of which survive in other collections.

Bouts’s pictures are extremely difficult to date. In The Entombment, the perspective is mismanaged; in his datable pictures of the 1460s and early 1470s Bouts shows a remarkable command of perspective. The picture is also strongly influenced by Rogier van der Weyden’s paintings of the 1430s and early 1440s. It was probably painted in the 1450s.