Focus on this artwork and explain the Interpretations.
Caravaggio's painting is a visual counterpart to the Mass, with the priest raising the newly consecrated host with the Entombment as a backdrop. The privileged placement of the altar would have meant that this was a daily occurrence; the act perfectly juxtaposing the body in the picture with the host as the priest intones "This is my very body." Jacopo Pontormo's Deposition (ca. 1525–1528) in Florence performs a similar function, similarly displayed over an altar. Such pictures are presentations of the Corpus Domini rather than enactments of the deposition of entombment of Christ.
Starting in the 17th-century, Caravaggio's picture has been considered a scene of active burial. This interpretation was based on heroic formula derived from antique sources, that of Adonis or Meleager: head thrown back and one arm hanging limply by the side. Indeed, Raphael's Borghese Deposition is an example of this formula. The placing of Christ's body on a flat stone also had precedents in painting, notably Rogier van der Weyden's Lamentation in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.On closer inspection, Caravaggio painting does not fit this formula, since these ancient types are transportation scenes, whereas his, as in Van der Weyden's case, is decidedly not. Instead the composition assumes the traditional pyramidal shape of a traditional Pietà type. Given the interpretation of the picture as a Pietà type, the flat stone (previously interpreted as a lid or door to a tomb) can be reinterpreted as a reference to the Stone of Unction, today enshrined in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. This stone was used to place Christ's body when it was anointed and wound in linen clothes, as related in the Gospel of John.Seldom noticed by modern viewers is Caravaggio's insertion of the plant in the lower left of the Entombment. Commonly called mullein, Verbascum thapsus was thought to have medicinal properties and was said to ward off evil spirits. It was associated with the iconography of Saint John the Baptist. Caravaggio also uses it in his Saint John the Baptist and Rest on the Flight into Egypt.
Raphael Church of the Holy Sepulchre Rest on the Flight into Egypt Uffizi Christ Meleager Pietà Gospel of John Adonis Jacopo Pontormo Mass John the Baptist Corpus Domini Uffizi Gallery Rogier van der Weyden Borghese Deposition Verbascum thapsus Caravaggio Deposition Jerusalem Saint John the Baptist Pontormo left Raphael's Lamentation