The Entombment

Alabaster and Solnhofen stone are relatively soft materials, which can be easily carved with a knife. Marble, on the other hand, is a hard, fine-grained, crystalline stone, which has to be carved with chisels and a mallet. All can be polished with fine abrasive powders, with marble, in particular, taking a high polish. In Spain sculptors used alabaster from about 1300 onwards. The material came mainly from regional quarries.

The composition is based on an etching by the Italian artist Parmigianino (1503-1540). Italian sources were used relatively frequently in Spanish sculpture, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. This relief could have been part of a predella of a small altarpiece, or it may have been a small devotional piece in its own right.