The Entombment, after Mantegna

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)|Andrea Mantegna|Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

17th century · Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over preliminary lines in red chalk, heightened with white on Japanese paper · Drawings and Prints

Rembrandt famously claimed that it was possible to learn about Italian art without ever leaving his native Holland. Prints, which are portable and relatively inexpensive, facilitated such study by disseminating art and innovation from different regions. The present drawing is an example of an artist from Rembrandt’s circle studying an engraving of Christ’s Entombment by Andrea Mantegna (see 37.42.30). The draftsman focused on the Italian master’s dynamic figures, such as the grief-stricken mourners in the foreground, and his characteristic diagonal hatching, leaving out other elements of the composition entirely.

Artist

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)|Andrea Mantegna|Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

Date

17th century

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over preliminary lines in red chalk, heightened with white on Japanese paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971