The Renaissance flourished in many Italian cities besides Florence, among them
Rome, Urbino, Mantua, Venice, Milan, and Perugia. A Perugian noblewoman,
Atalanta Baglioni, for example, commissioned the artist Raphael (1483–1520) to paint
an altarpiece for her private chapel to commemorate the death of her son, Grifonetto.
In his Entombment of Christ (see Plate 8.5 on p. 311), Raphael joined religious piety
to family feeling and admiration for classical themes and representations. The piety
and family feeling are obvious: the altar was meant to serve as the backdrop for
commemorative masses on behalf of Grifonetto’s soul and for Atalanta herself when
she died. Viewers would have associated her with the Virgin, mother of the crucified
Christ, who appears in the painting fainting with grief. Raphael’s reliance on classical
precedents is perhaps less evident here than in, say, Piero’s painting of Venus. But
compare the limp figure of Christ and his straining corpse-bearers with the group
carrying the lifeless Meleager in Plate 1.4 on p. 15. It is likely that this ancient
sarcophagus, which was well known and admired in Raphael’s day, inspired his
modeling of Christ and his bearers.
