Begrafenis van Jacob 1522

This woodcut print, titled 'The Burial of Jacob', was made by an anonymous artist, and it is now held in the Rijksmuseum collection. The image depicts pallbearers conveying a coffin, presumably that of Jacob, to its final resting place, likely in a tomb that awaits them. The woodcut technique lends a stark, graphic quality to the scene. It’s hard to say with certainty when and where this image was made without further research. But one can assume that the artist probably lived in a deeply religious environment. The depiction of biblical scenes such as these was common in the early modern period, and the artist probably wanted to comment on the social structures of their own time. They may have been self-consciously conservative or progressive. To understand the image better, we might consider the history of woodcut printing, biblical illustration, and funerary art, reflecting on the meaning of art as something that is contingent on its social and institutional context.