Drawing in the British Museum

This drawing shows the physical strain of the figures carrying Christ's limp body, held in a burial shroud. On the right, a group of women, including the Virgin Mary, express profound grief through their gestures and postures. The sketch demonstrates Raphael's focus on anatomical precision and the dynamic arrangement of bodies to convey spiritual and emotional weight.

As a study by Raphael, this work reflects the High Renaissance synthesis of Christian theology with Neoplatonic ideals regarding the human body as a 'microcosm' of divine order. The emphasis on the physical suffering and material weight of the body was often interpreted by Renaissance thinkers like Ficino as the descent of the divine soul into the constraints of the material world.