The Entombment

Mary holds her son’s wrist as his body is lowered into the tomb. Beside her, John the Evangelist supports her weight. The gestures are small, but each person seems absorbed in the effort of caring for the dead and for one another. Dirk Bouts, a painter working in the fifteenth-century Netherlands, brings Christ’s family and followers close around his white shroud. Mary Magdalene supports his legs. Behind the central group, one woman wipes away tears and another raises her veil to her mouth. The muted surface also deserves attention. Bouts painted on linen, rather than the wooden panels often used for such images. Paintings of this kind were once common, but their delicate surfaces mean that few survive. Some colours have faded, thin paint has worn away and dirt remains embedded in the cloth. A strip of brighter colour protected along the upper edge gives a hint of its earlier appearance. What now looks subdued partly belongs to the material’s history, as well as to the quiet way Bouts pictured mourning.