The Entombment of Christ

This small panel by Simone Martini depicts the moment after the Descent from the Cross, when Christ’s body is laid out for burial on the stone slab. The Virgin embraces and kisses him, while Mary Magdalene, Saint John, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and other followers gather around in varying attitudes of grief. Mourning unfolds in the foreground with almost choral intensity, while the dark reddish landscape behind encloses the scene in an atmosphere of sorrow and contemplation.

The work belongs to the Orsini Polyptych and is now kept in the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, under inventory number 1070A. The museum dates it to about 1335–1340 and records dimensions of 23.7 by 16.7 centimeters. It is painted on poplar wood. Technical studies have also shown that the reddish landscape with trees does not belong to the original appearance but was added over an original gold ground in a later, probably early intervention.