Entombment of Christ

Tintoretto's Entombment of Christ, with its perplexing date attribution of 1501 — before his birth around 1518 — clearly represents either a dating error or a later copy after a Tintoretto original, now in the Oberfinanzdirektion München's custody. The Entombment was a subject Tintoretto treated throughout his career, each version finding new ways to convey the physical weight of Christ's dead body and the emotional desolation of those who carry and receive it. His approach to this subject — stripping away the gold and coloristic richness that Venetian tradition associated with sacred subjects, emphasizing instead the gray pallor of death and the raw human grief of the mourners — was among his most significant Counter-Reformation departures from earlier practice. The painting's unusual custodianship by the Oberfinanzdirektion (a German federal tax authority) reflects the complex histories of art that passed through governmental hands during the twentieth century, often through confiscations, looting, and postwar administrative distributions that placed works in non-museum public ownership.

Tintoretto's characteristic diagonal composition creates dynamic movement as figures strain under the weight of Christ's body. His rapid, energetic brushwork is visible in the drapery folds and background, while the flesh of Christ receives more careful modeling. The dramatic chiaroscuro, influenced by his study of Michelangelo's sculptural forms, casts deep shadows that heighten the scene's emotional gravity.