Despite the ravages of the Thirty Years' War, Leonhard Kern's shop in Schwäbisch Hall flourished, producing statuettes and small reliefs of high quality in boxwood, ivory, and alabaster. This output extended the precepts of Renaissance art well into the seventeenth century, thanks to Kern's memories of his study in Italy (1609–12) and his emulation of famous Italian masters such as Giovanni Bologna. To the latter he may owe the V-shaped cleft in the mountains that part in this scene to reveal Jerusalem and enframe the Holy Women (above center), as well as the rectilinear cluster of figures at right that includes Joseph of Arimathea, carrying a stack of linens and directing the preparation of Christ's body for burial. Yet these are not strict quotations, and the design, characteristically for Kern, is full of original touches, especially the angel at center—rare to this episode—who serves as intermediary between God and man and whose wings greatly activate the composition.