1946, Mark Rothko, Entombment, I [watercolor and ink] -- National Gallery of Art (Washington) (special exhibition)

From the museum label: A horizontal band inscribed forcefully with diamond shapes stretches across a trio of tall, spindly figures. Rothko's composition and title recall burial imagery on black-figure ancient Greek pottery, which he studied at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In fact, Entombment, I resembles the ancient Greek practice of prothesis, a funeral rite in which the deceased is laid out for viewing.

 

Link to other paintings from the exhibition Mark Rothko: Paintings on Paper.

Done