Description: Inscribed on the old mount "Caravage". Numbered in the lower right corner "13" (struck out)

The traditional attribution points to the major source for this compositions, Caravaggio's "Entombment" for the Chiesa Nuova in Rome. The drawing shows affinities with works by several of his followers. In Giovanni Baglione's painting for the Chiesa del Monte della Misericordia in Naples, dated 1607, the old man to the left (Nicodemus) is very close, while Christ's body is more upright. The mourning women in the background recall Dirk van Baburen's version in S. Pietro in Montorio, 1617. Closer still is a painting by Baburen's collaborator in S. Pietro in Montorio, David de Haen. The Body of Christ is almost identical, although mirrored, and the old man holding Him by the shoulders is similar. Slatkes notes that de Haen was older than Baburen, and that his rendering is more characteristic of an earlier generation.

The drawing style has affinities both with Baglione and with Caravaggio's first master, Cavalier d'Arpino. However, it seems also quite possible that this is a drawing by a Dutch follower of Caravaggio. [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 624]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011

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