Mourning figures: the 'Borghese Entombment'

An etching after a drawing by Raphael (c.1506-1507) now in the British Museum (inv. no. 1895,0915.636) for the 'Borghese Entombment', a painting executed by Raphael (1507) now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv.no. 170). Signed and dated by the printmaker, with the attribution of the drawing to Raphael. Published in "A collection of prints in imitation of drawings. To which are annexed lives of their authors with explanatory and critical notes by Charles Rogers, Esq" (1778), vol. I. See RCIN 809363 for the volumes.

This drawing develops the group depicted by Raphael on the right side of a drawing now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. WA1846.170; see RCIN 850271 for a photograph of this drawing).

The so-called 'Borghese Entombment' used to be the central panel of an altarpiece ('Baglioni Altarpiece') executed by Raphael for the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia and commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni to commemorate the death of her son Grifonetto, who was murdered in 1500. Raphael is documented in Perugia in 1505, when scholars believe that Raphael received the commission, and the majority of his preparatory drawings are dated c.1506-1507.

A considerable number of sketches and studies by Raphael for this composition are known and they reflect the different phases towards the definition of the pictorial programme. The scene depicted in the painting is the moment in which Christ's body is carried to the grave, with the separate group of the three Marys supporting the Virgin to the right. The more conventional iconographies of the Entombment and the Lamentation over Christ's body have here been transformed by Raphael into a more narrative painting.

By order of the nephew of Pope Paul V, Scipione Borghese, in 1608 the painting was removed from its original location and housed in the Borghese collection in Rome, where it remained until 1797 when it was confiscated by Napoleon and taken to Paris. In 1815 it was returned to the Galleria Borghese.