Christ in the Sepulchre 1937

Eldora P. Lorenzini made this watercolor drawing of "Christ in the Sepulchre." The sepulchre is rendered with such care, a clear attention to the details of its making. You can see the way the wood is jointed together, the grain and the knots, and the varying tones in the wood. I love the way that the artist has lovingly described the construction of the sepulchre. Each little baluster is rendered with a thin dark line, each one a little different, as if done by hand. The whole thing is somehow very tender, maybe because this drawing feels more like a diagram. It feels like it was made by someone who really knew the sepulchre, its weight and structure, rather than someone who just saw it from a distance. It makes me think of Hilla and Bernd Becher, who photographed industrial structures like water towers and coal bunkers, not to make them look beautiful, but to document their construction. Lorenzini's sepulchre feels similarly dedicated to the process of building, framing the sacred figure it contains.