This pair of dramatic paintings depict two central scenes from the Gospels: the Flagellation of Christ and the Entombment of Christ. We classify these as Workshop of Hans Leonhard Schäufelein (ca.1480 – ca. 1540), a leading painter and graphic artist in early 16th Century Bavaria. Schäufelein was a pupil of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), whose Nuremberg workshop he is believed to have entered around 1503.

The first of these two paintings shows a central scene in the Passion of Christ, his flagellation by Roman guards on the orders of Pontius Pilate. The suffering of Christ at the hands of his (enthusiastic) torturers is evident in his blood-stained body and face, whose expression is rendered with pathos by the artist.

The second painting is yet more dramatic: Christ, having died on the cross, is laid in a sarcophagus hewn from rock (here depicted in red, as the unction stone is also traditionally coloured). The artist has created a scene of passionate grief that the viewer can share in. He is mourned by his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and others. According to the Gospel of John, two men were also present at the Entombment, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus: “Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury” (John 19: 38-39). Indeed in our painting we see two men holding the linen wrapped around Christ’s body as they lower it into the tomb.

Both paintings are held in gilded wooden frames with sloping bottoms that present the scenes as if in a drama staged before our very eyes.