Entombment of Christ c. 1578 - 1579

Federico Barocci rendered this drawing, Entombment of Christ, using pen, brown ink, and brush with brown wash. It offers a window into the religious culture of late 16th-century Italy. The image depicts the body of Christ surrounded by mourners, a common subject in the art of the period. This particular representation of the entombment could be related to the Counter-Reformation, a movement within the Catholic Church to reaffirm its doctrines and practices in response to the Protestant Reformation. The emotional intensity of the scene, with its emphasis on grief and piety, aligns with the Counter-Reformation's focus on personal religious experience. To fully understand this work, we can consult religious texts, historical documents, and other artworks from the period. Art isn't created in a vacuum; it's deeply embedded in its social and institutional context.