The work is perhaps the "altarpiece [with] Our Lord's sepulchre [...] and other five figures" which appear in the inventory made in 1492 at the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, and which decorated his Villa at Careggi since as early as 1482.

[1] The panel adopts the same scheme in Fra Angelico's Pietà for the predella of the San Marco Altarpiece (1438–1443), now at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, confirming that the Flemish artist visited Florence during his pilgrimage in Italy of 1449–1450, as mentioned in De viribus illustribus by Bartolomeo Facio (c. 1456).

In 1989 it was still assigned to Hans Memling by some scholars, but in 1992 reflex photography[clarification needed] showed the underlying drawing, which was clearly executed by van der Weyden.

[1] The painting has a rectangular shape, and shows Christ being buried with the weeping Mary and John the Evangelist holding his hands.

The corpse is supported by Joseph of Arimathea and by Nicodemus dressed in refined clothing of the times and gazing out towards the spectator, once thought to be a self-portrait of the artist which is now known to portray Cosimo the elder.