# Dead Christ with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus \(Sepulcrum Christi\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PERUGINO, Pietro]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Oil and tempera on panel, transferred to fabric on panel, 93 x 72 cm ## Commentary Joseph of Arimathea looks on contemplatively as a tearful Nicodemus supports Christ's lifeless body on a stone tomb, which is inscribed in Latin with the artist's name and the work's subject, "sepulcher of Christ." The painting may originally have been positioned above an altar in a private chapel, where its somber mood was meant to encourage devotion and prayer. Despite his bloody wounds, Christ is depicted with an idealized body, like that of a classical statue, and a serene expression, suggesting his eventual triumph over death. The timeless beauty of the figures and the perfection that emanates from his compositions earned Perugino the epithet of the "Divine Painter", a name awarded to him by Giovanni Santi, the father of his student Raphael. ## Related artworks - [Apollo and Marsyas]() - [Archangel Michael]() - [Assumption of Mary]() - [Assumption of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Assumption of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() - [Assumption of the Virgin with Four Saints \(detail\)]() - [Assumption of the Virgin with Four Saints \(detail\)]() - [Assumption of the Virgin with Four Saints]() - [Baptism of Christ \(detail\)]() - [Baptism of Christ \(detail\)]() - [Baptism of Christ \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()