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Martin Schongauer

The Entombment, ca. 1480

Description

Maker

  • Martin Schongauer, ca. 1430-1491, German

Title

The Entombment

Year

ca. 1480

Medium

Engraving, trimmed within platemark

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • engraving

Supports

  • Light weight laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 16.4 x 11.4 cm (6 7/16 x 4 1/2 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Lettered LC: "M+S"

Verso: stamped "Dublette der Albertina" in red (Lugt 5g)

Watermark: human head in profile with three curls (closest to Briquet 15674 and 15675)

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Prints

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Object Number

32.185

Projects & Publications

Publications

The Brilliant Line

Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Read Online

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Visions and Revisions

February 15 - August 4, 2019

This elegant composition depicts the moment Jesus’s body was laid to rest after his crucifixion. Schongauer combined fluid outlines, tiny dots, fine parallel lines, and limited crosshatching to create an image that is at once decorative, moving, and arresting in its apparent simplicity. The blank areas emphasize the sober, stark atmosphere of the event.

Schongauer, who consistently signed his work with his initials, was one of the first artists to take up and perfect the technique of engraving in the late 1400s. The young Albrecht Dürer (wall at right) sought to become Schongauer’s apprentice, but Schongauer died shortly before Dürer reached his hometown of Colmar.

The Brilliant Line

September 18, 2009 - January 3, 2010

Trained as a painter in the Upper Rhine city of Colmar, Martin Schongauer learned much from studying engravings by the Master ES but brought to engraving a painter’s sense for light and color. His marks vacillate from interpretive, draftsman-like lines, evident here on St. John’s drapery, to more regular systems of hatching and cross-hatching, as on the drapery of the Virgin Mary. Schongauer outlined each figure with one continuous contour, and softened tonal transitions with fine hatching placed at the edges of his forms.

Part of a series of twelve prints representing Christ’s Passion, The Entombment depicts the moment after the Crucifixion when Christ’s body is interred. Christ is surrounded by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist on the near side of the sarcophagus, and by Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and the three Marys (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, and Mary, mother of James) behind it. Spatially isolated from the others and bathed in light, Christ, the Virgin, and St. John are the spiritual center of the pyramidal composition.

German Renaissance Graphics from the Museum's Collection

November 28, 1961 - January 7, 1962

German Etchings and Engravings

April 30 - June 9, 1953

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is The Entombment with the accession number of 32.185. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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