Entombment
Historical Context
This Entombment by the Master of San Martino alla Palma, painted around 1330, reflects the Giottesque revolution that transformed Florentine painting in the early Trecento. The anonymous master, named after a church near Florence, was part of the circle that absorbed Giotto's innovations in spatial depth and emotional storytelling. The scene of Christ's burial served as a devotional focus for private meditation on the Passion, a central practice in Franciscan spirituality that shaped Tuscan religious art.
Technical Analysis
Executed in egg tempera on a gold-ground panel, the composition arranges mourning figures around Christ's body with the compact, frieze-like staging typical of Giotto's followers. The drapery folds show a simplified volumetric modeling characteristic of this master's restrained style.
