The plate failed in the biting and was probably destroyed or reused.

This is the first of three prints Rembrandt would dedicate to this subject, but in this case the plate completely failed in the biting. Into the 19th century it was believed that the next etching (B81-II) was a second state of this one, it is now clear that Rembrandt abandoned the plate and started the project with a new one.

As described in John 19, verses 38-40, the body of Jesus was removed from the cross and wrapped in linen by Joseph of Arimathea, one of His disciples.

It is generally assumed that Rembrandt based the composition on an altarpiece by Rubens in the cathedral of Antwerp or, more likely, on the engraving after it by Lucas Vorsterman of 1620 (Hollstein 31).
Broos points at a woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538).

A year later Rembrandt painted the same subject in a very similar composition for prince Frederick Henry (Corpus A65, Bredius 550, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich).

It is now generally assumed that Rembrandt made the original drawing to be transferred to the copperplate and left the etching to Johannes van Vliet, with whom he worked in the period between 1631 and 1636. It may be that Rembrandt took control when the first prints failed miserably.

All authors list one state only.

Only three complete impressions of this plate are known, in the Rijksmuseum, in the British Museum and in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
There is a fragment with only the three heads in the Albertina (R264).

IHP with countermark R.

H 102, BB 33-B, G 84(I), M 186, Mz 197, RA 264, Cl 83, W 83, Bl 56, Du 88, CD 76
Rembrandt & Van Vliet 1996, p. 73-75; Hinterding 2008, p. 178ff;