Tempera on canvas mounted onto cardboard
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39" aria-label="More by William Blake" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Blake</a>
Body Christ Borne to Tomb
Presented by Francis T. Palgrave 1884
adults
architecture
Bible: New Testament
birth to death
Calvary
Christ
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
clothing and personal items
countries and continents
cross
death
diseases and conditions
dome
Entombment
features
funeral
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Jerusalem
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man
man, old
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mythical, religious, fictional
objects
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St Joseph of Arimathea
staff
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<p>This tempera is very well preserved, mainly because it was painted on thin linen canvas, stuck onto thin cardboard. This is stiff enough to reduce the cracking that develops on flexible canvas. It also made it unnecessary to add the animal glue lining which has spoilt the opaque white effect of Blake's chalk preparatory layer in many temperas. As a result, Blake's delicate painted details can still be seen as he intended.</p><p>This is the only Blake tempera in this room in a frame dating from the time it was painted. Blake may have chosen the frame design himself.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting tempera canvas mounted onto cardboard
8 July 2002 – 1 October 2003
2003-10-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
William Blake Body and Soul
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
2002-07-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Body and Soul
Collection based display
24 November 2003 – 22 November 2004
2004-11-22
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-24
William Blake the Painter at Work
Collection based display
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
3 July 2012 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
2012-07-03
Fundació “la Caixa” (Madrid, Spain)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
22 February 2013 – 26 May 2013
2013-05-26
22 February 2013 – 26 May 2013
2013-05-26
2013-02-22
Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie (Frankfurt, Germany)
http://www.staedelmuseum.de
2013-02-22
Neoclassicism - Romanticism
Loan-out
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-04-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
William Blake
Collection based display
22 May 2017 – 28 July 2019
2019-07-28
22 May 2017 – 28 July 2019
2019-07-28
2017-05-22
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-05-22
William Blake in Focus
Collection based display
11 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
2020-02-02
11 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
2020-02-02
2019-09-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2019-09-11
William Blake: The Artist
Exhibition
The Body of Christ Borne to the Tomb
support: 267 × 378 mm
frame: 390 × 497 × 63 mm
Presented by Francis T. Palgrave 1884
<div class="para1">
<span class="text14">This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>tempera</span></a> is very well preserved, mainly because it      was painted on thin linen <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, </span><span class="text19">stuck onto      thin cardboard. This is stiff </span><span class="text16">enough</span><span class="text14"> </span><span class="text12">to reduce the cracking that      develops</span><span class="text17"> </span><span class="text18">on </span><span class="text15">flexible canvas. It also made it unnecessary</span><span class="text12">
</span><span class="text17">to add the animal glue lining      which has spoilt the opaque white effect of Blake's </span><span class="text12"><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/chalk" title="Glossary definition for 'Chalk'"><span>chalk</span></a> preparatory layer in many temperas. As a result, Blake's      delicate painted details can still be seen as he intended. </span>
</div>
<div class="para1">
<span class="text12">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para1">
<span class="text17">This is the only Blake tempera in this </span><span class="text12">
</span><span class="text14">room in a frame dating from the      time it was painted.  Blake may have chosen the frame </span><span class="text12">design himself. </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-body-of-christ-borne-to-the-tomb-n01164" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01164</span></a> <b>The Body of Christ Borne to the Tomb</b> <i>c.</i>
1799–1800
<br/>
<br/>N 01164 / B 426
<br/>Tempera on canvas, mounted on cardboard 267×378 (10 1/2×14 7/8)</p>
<p>Signed ‘WB inv’ in monogram b.l.
<br/>Presented to the National Gallery by F.T. Palgrave 1884; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1934
<br/>PROVENANCE Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts jun., sold <i>c.</i> 1852 to F.T. Palgrave
<br/>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery (28), Manchester (21), Nottingham (14) and Edinburgh (17) 1913–14; Paris and Vienna 1937 (11); Paris, Antwerp (pl.9), Zurich and Tate Gallery 1947 (17); Arts Council 1951 (31, pl.7); Tate Gallery 1978 (140, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.228 no.158, and 1880, pp.240–1 no.182; Blunt in <i>Warburg Journal</i>, VI, 1943, p.204 n.3; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.42 no.142 repr.; Blunt 1959, pp.66–7, pl.33; Robert Rosenblum, <i>Transformations in Late Eighteenth-Century Art</i>, 1967, pp.161–2; pl. 191; Bindman 1977, pp.124, 129, pl. 103; Butlin 1981, p.333 no.426, colour pl. 510; Essick in <i>Blake,</i> XVI, 1982–3, p.42, pl.20
<br/></p>
<p>The title given to this picture is William Rossetti's. The actual procession from Calvary is not described in the Gospels. As David Bindman points out, Joseph of Arimathea, who is seen on his own beside the bier holding a long staff, was both an archetype of the artist and, in legend, the first of Christ's followers to come to England. Robert Rosenblum suggests the influence of John Flaxman's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> of ‘Elektra leading Procession to Agamemnon's Tomb’ published in <i>Chöephoroe</i> of 1795 (repr. <i>op. cit.</i>, pl. 190).
<br/>An inscription on the mount reads ‘<i>W. Blake</i> Bought of Mr. Butts of Fitzroy Square - about 1852. F.T. Palgrave’.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture Bible: New Testament birth to death Calvary Christ cities, towns, villages (non-UK) clothing and personal items countries and continents cross death diseases and conditions dome Entombment features funeral Israel Jerusalem Jerusalem - non-specific man man, old mourning mythical, religious, fictional objects people places religion and belief religious and ceremonial Saints society spire staff St Joseph of Arimathea urn vessels and containers woman wounded