Fra Angelico's 'The Entombment of Christ' - A Narrative Approach

THE DIALOG
Detail from Fra Angelico's "The Entombment of Christ" places us at the tomb as those who loved Christ and were loved by him prepare his body for burial. Christ's pallid body, cradled in burial cloths, is suspended off the ground between two men tenderly carrying his body toward the tomb. (CNS photo/courtesy National Gallery of Art)
Fra Angelico’s “The Entombment of Christ” places us at the tomb as those who loved Christ and were loved by him prepare his body for burial. Here John stands devotedly behind her, and they support each other in their grief. Joseph of Arimathea, who gave his own tomb for Christ to be buried in, leads him into the door. Fra Angelico, (1387-1455) a Dominican friar led a simple and devout life in Florence, Italy. He was humble, a friend to the poor and when Rome offered him the seat of the archbishop of Florence, he refused the position. Painting was the way he lived out his vocation. He would never take up his brushes without a prayer and chose only holy subjects. [More]