An engraving by Agostino Veneziano depicting the Lamentation over Christ's body. Trimmed within the platemark.

Scholars debated (see Bibliographic References) whether this print is inspired by an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi or vice versa. See RCIN 850276 for the print by Raimondi.

The model for Marcantonio's engraving has been identified in a drawing by Raphael now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. WA1846.170) which reflects Raphael's preliminary idea (then rejected) for the Borghese Entombment, a painting executed by Raphael (1507) now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv.no. 170). See RCIN 850271 for a photograph of the drawing. Shoemaker (see Bibliographic References) noted that the landscape depicted by Raimondi is reminiscent of those by Lucas van Leyden, in particular that in the print Boy with a trumpet.

The so-called Borghese Entombment used to be the central panel of an altarpiece (Baglioni Altarpiece) executed by Raphael for the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia and commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni to commemorate the death of her son Grifonetto, who was murdered in 1500. Raphael is documented in Perugia in 1505, when scholars believe that Raphael received the commission, and the majority of his preparatory drawings are dated c.1506-07.

A considerable number of sketches and studies by Raphael for this composition are known and they reflect the different phases towards the definition of the pictorial programme. The scene depicted in the painting is the moment in which Christ's body is carried to the grave, with the separate group of the three Marys supporting the Virgin to the right. The more conventional iconographies of the Entombment and the Lamentation over Christ's body have here been transformed by Raphael into a more narrative painting.

By order of the nephew of Pope Paul V, Scipione Borghese, in 1608 the painting was removed from its original location and housed in the Borghese collection in Rome, where it remained until 1797 when it was confiscated by Napoleon and taken to Paris. In 1815 it was returned to the Galleria Borghese.