Entombment

The plaquette is a small-scale adaptation for private devotion of Riccio’s Entombment relief on his Paschal candelabrum (Basilica del Santo, Padua), which he completed in 1516. Two versions of that work are known, either with or without an inscription on the panel of the sarcophagus. The inscription, absent in the Lehman version, reads QVEM.TOTVS.NON CAP[it].ORB[is]. IN.HAC TVMBA.CLAVDIT[ur] (He whom the whole world could not contain is enclosed within this tomb), derived from a famous line by Saint Bonaventura. This relief is associated with Riccio’s Della Torre monument reliefs from Verona, dating from the late 1510s (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Thus, a secure date for the plaquette is about 1516 – 21. The Lehman version belongs to the large group of crude and late aftercasts that exist of this composition.