| Artist | |
|---|---|
| Culture | Spanish |
| Date | end of the 15th century |
| Object type | painting |
| Medium, technique | tempera and gold on walnut |
| Dimensions | 82 × 90 cm |
| Signature | Signed below, on the scroll: p(edr)o s(ánch)es pintor |
| Inventory number | 3712 |
| Collection | Old Master Paintings |
| On view | Museum of Fine Arts, First Floor, European Art 1250-1600, Gallery XII |
The solemn, stifled grief of mourning permeates this scene, which depicts the final moments before Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus seal the dead body of Christ inside the stone sarcophagus. This harmonious and finely balanced composition is unusual in that the artist – quite unconventionally for his day – has signed his name, on the banderole visible in the foreground: po ses pintor.
The winding roads and the landscape details in the background, the symmetrical arrangement of the figures and the intricate working of the clothes all indicate that Pedro Sánchez I was a follower of the early Flemish tradition of painting. Nevertheless, his work features one element that is Spanish through and through: the assortment of vessels placed before the sarcophagus, all different shapes and ma- terials, is an early example of the bodegón, a typically Spanish category of the still life.
Pigler, Andor, Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, 1-2. Museum der Bildenden Künste, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest. 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1967, p. 613-614.
Nyerges, Éva, Spanish Paintings, A Szépművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményei/The Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2008, p. 52-53, no. 19.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.
