The Entombment
about 1500
Object PlaceFaenza, Italy
Medium/TechniquePolychromed terracotta
Dimensions29.21 x 57.15 cm (11 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.)
Credit LineHelen and Alice Colburn Fund
Accession number60.943
On View
On viewClassificationsSculpture
Collections
This group represents Christ being laid in the tomb by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, while the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, St. John, and two other women look on in grief. The simplicity, the contemporary dress of the two men who support Christ, and the realistic painting give the scene an immediacy that would have encouraged viewers to imagine they, too, were present. This would likely have been placed on or below an altar in a chapel.
ProvenanceRichard von Kaufmann (b. 1849 - d. 1908), Berlin; December 4-5, 1917, Kaufmann sale, Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, lot 263, sold for 25,000 M to Count Sierstorpff, probably Adalbert von Franken-Sierstorpff (b. 1856 - d. 1922) and his wife, Bertha von Franken-Sierstorpff (b. 1876 - d. 1949), Eltville-am-Rhein and Wiesbaden, Germany [see note 1]. 1960, Wilhelm Henrich (dealer), Frankfurt; sold by Henrich to the MFA for $500. (Accession Date: September 21, 1960)NOTES:
[1] According to a letter from Wilhelm Henrich to Hanns Swarzenski of the MFA (May 31, 1960), the sculpture came from the Kaufmann and Sirstorpf [sic] collections. In an interoffice memorandum from Hanns Swarzenski to Perry Rathbone (September 21, 1960), the sculpture is said to have been "acquired at the [Kaufmann] collection sale by Count Sierstorpf." Swarzenski implies that Henrich had owned the sculpture for several years, having seen it at his gallery "on my first visit after the war."
about 1700
mid-18th century
17th century
