Description
Rubens' The Entombment was intended to make the viewer's religious experience personal and to encourage worshipers to imagine the physical horror of Christ's crucifixion. The tortured features of Christ confront the viewer, and our attention is drawn to his corpse, sacrifice, and suffering.
After his training in Antwerp, Rubens worked in Italy. In Rome he studied the controversial works of Caravaggio, including the great altarpiece The Entombment. Rubens then paid tribute to him. Close examination shows that he intended to create a faithful copy, but as the work progressed he adapted and made it his own. Unlike Caravaggio's static theatrics, Rubens emphasized the unity of the group and their shared task of burying Christ, while preserving the almost physical presence of Christ's inert body from the original.
Rubens painted two paintings with the same name: see The Entombment of Rubens here