The Entombment

Dieric Bouts's Entombment, painted around 1450 and now in the National Gallery, London, depicts the burial of Christ with the measured gravity characteristic of this Leuven master. Bouts brings his distinctive temperament to the Passion narrative—where Rogier van der Weyden created emotional turbulence, Bouts creates solemn stillness. The figures stand or kneel in quiet sorrow, their restrained grief conveying the weight of the event through dignified composure rather than dramatic gesture.

Bouts's technique features his characteristic cool palette, stiff figural poses, and precise spatial construction, with the emotional weight of the Entombment conveyed through compositional stillness rather than expressive gesture.