The Entombment (Martini)

After the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea took Christ's body for burial, wrapping it and laying it in a tomb (John 19:38-42). Against a darkening sky streaked with red, Simone Martini's mourners lower the body in a storm of grief - one woman flinging both arms overhead, others pressing their faces to the corpse, the Virgin cradling her son's head. The final scene of the Orsini Polyptych, now in Berlin, it abandons all restraint: raw lamentation set off by the glint of gold haloes. Simone's emotional intensity and courtly line would carry Sienese art to the papal court and beyond.