Die Grablegung Christi

This 1813 panel by Cornelius coincides exactly with the year of the Casa Bartholdy commission — arguably the most consequential year of the Nazarene Brotherhood's collective existence. Working on panel in this period was a deliberate statement connecting the Brotherhood's practice to pre-Baroque German and Flemish traditions, specifically the altarpiece tradition that ran from Dürer through Cranach. Cornelius had studied Dürer intensively before leaving Germany, and his early drawings and prints show the German master's influence in the treatment of drapery, the characterisation of faces, and the balance between decorative surface pattern and structural clarity. A 1813 panel work thus exists at a richly documented historical intersection: the Brotherhood's manifesto was being tested in practice, their Roman friendships with French and Italian artists were newly formed, and their ambitions for renewing sacred German art were at their most utopian.

Panel preparation in the early nineteenth century typically involved a chalk or gesso ground over wood, providing a smooth, hard surface that suited the Nazarene preference for precise graphic definition. Cornelius's brushwork on panel would be controlled and deliberate, allowing fine line detail impossible on the more absorbent weave of canvas.