Embodiments of pain

Before Christ's body is placed in a tomb in the rock...

...those closest to him mourn over him.

Nicolas Poussin shows this old theme - one that is not actually described explicitly in the Canonical Gospels - in a particularly moving fashion.

John the Apostle in distraught prayer...

...and Mary fainting are both embodiments of pain depicted in different ways.

The two child-like putti are weeping.

Poussin stages his composition in a cemetery of antiquity...

...demonstrating his effort to achieve historical accuracy.