The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb 1521

Hans Holbein the Younger made this striking panel painting sometime in the early 16th century, deploying oil paints with incredible mastery. Oil paint revolutionized artmaking. Ground pigments suspended in oil allowed for smooth, almost photographic realism. Holbein pushes this to the limit, depicting the dead Christ in a shallow, box-like space. The effect is unnervingly immediate. The texture of the paint itself disappears, leaving us with only the stark image. Consider the time and labor involved. Pigments had to be sourced, mixed, and layered meticulously. Holbein's skill transforms mundane materials into something transcendent, or perhaps, brutally real. It is easy to overlook the 'craft' in such an image, yet Holbein's artistry reminds us that all paintings are, at base, material things, built up through labor. And in this case, labor serving to remind us of death, a great leveler.