Entombment of Christ

In the middle of the row of small scenes beneath the San Marco altarpiece, Fra Angelico interrupted the legend of the saints Cosmas and Damian and put this one instead, the dead Christ at the tomb. The place was chosen with care. The panel sat directly under the small painted Crucifixion at the centre of the main picture, and directly above the altar table where Mass was said, so the body of Christ shown here lined up with the sacrament celebrated beneath it. Fra Angelico painted it around 1438 to 1440 for the church of his own friary in Florence, rebuilt at the expense of Cosimo de' Medici. When the altarpiece was later dismantled its pieces scattered. This one reached Munich first, bought for Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria in 1818, four years before three of the saints' panels joined it.