3-039-747 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Entombment; Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, about 1525-1530. Additional Info:In this miniature, presented as though seen through the frame of an arched doorway, Christ's family and friends say their final goodbyes and place Christ's body in a tomb. Sadness fills the scene, evident not only in the faces of the mourners but also in the gray tones of the gloomy gothic structure. The stormy skies in the border of the facing page reinforce the somber effect. The tenderness with which the mourners treat Christ's body evokes a sympathetic response in the viewer. Devotional treatises of the period would have asked the reader to imagine the kind of details seen in the miniature: the man on the left lowering Christ's legs into the tomb, the woman behind him who kisses his hand one last time, and Saint John comforting the Virgin.