The Entombment

The Entombment, painted around 1800, belongs to Blake's mature period when he was creating his most ambitious biblical compositions under the patronage of Thomas Butts, a civil servant who became his most loyal collector. Butts commissioned dozens of biblical temperas and watercolors, providing Blake with rare financial stability during a period of public neglect. Characteristic of Blake's approach, the work displays linear, symbolic, visionary imagery combining Michelangelesque figures with personal mythology.

Blake employs his distinctive tempera technique with its flat, fresco-like surface and strong linear contours. The figures are monumental yet ethereal, their simplified anatomy reflecting Blake's study of Gothic sculpture and Michelangelo's ignudi.