The collection of the Sakha Republic National Art Museum contains an engraving by Ugo da Carpi “The Entombment.”

The plot of the engraving is based on the scene of the placing of the Savior in the tomb. Against the background of a rock with a dark cave entrance and a stone sarcophagus, Joseph of Arimathea is depicted on the right, holding the body of the dead Christ on a shroud, and kneeling Nicodemus embracing the feet of Jesus. On the left, the artist placed the Mother of God, fainting from grief, and myrrh-bearing women supporting the Virgin Mary. Among them is the long-haired Mary Magdalene with her arms raised. Next to them stands the long-haired Apostle John the Evangelist.

The conciseness of the composition, in which the figures fill the entire plane of the sheet, lends the scene a heroic tone, so characteristic of Renaissance art. In this work, for all its drama, there is no sense of hopelessness or inner crisis. All the participants of the funeral procession say goodbye to Christ forever in deep sadness. The shades of beige, brown, and dark brown are wonderfully subtle and artfully selected.

The creator of the presented work is Ugo da Carpi, an Italian engraver and draftsman of the Northern Italian school of the 16th century, who worked between 1502 and 1532 in the cities of Venice, Rome and Bologna. The exact date of the artist’s birth and death are unknown. He was self-taught or perhaps trained by local artists. Over the years, Ugo reproduced the works of many artists, including Raphael, Baldassare Peruzzi and Parmigianino. Ugo was the largest artist who worked in the chiaroscuro woodcut technique (from the Italian chiaroscuro — “light and dark”) — woodcuts, in which printing is done sequentially from several “boards.” The combination of impression prints during printing is carried out using two needles and barely noticeable holes on paper and printing plate form.

Chiaroscuro technique originated among engravers grouped around the Italian draftsman, painter and engraver Parmigianino. Ugo da Carpi perfected the German technique of making woodcuts using several wooden printing plates: one for contours, others for conveying various shades. With his powerful style, emphasis on tonality and skills of interpretation, he made a great contribution to the development of chiaroscuro woodcuts. In his broad picturesque manner, Ugo da Carpi anticipated the style of drawings by the great painter and etcher Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.