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Deposition (Rogier van der Weyden)
Encyclopedia
The Descent from the Cross (or Deposition of Christ, or Descent of Christ from the Cross) is a panel painting
by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden created c. 1435, now in the Museo del Prado
, Madrid
. The work shows the Deposition of Christ. The crucified Christ is lowered from the cross, his lifeless body held by Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus
.
The c. 1435 date is estimated based on the work's style, and because the artist acquired wealth and renown around this time, most likely from the prestige this work allowed him. It was painted early in his career, shortly after he completed his apprenticeship with Robert Campin
and shows the older painter's influence, most notable in the hard sculpted surfaces, realistic facial features and vivid primary colours, mostly reds, whites and blues. The work was a self-conscious attempt by van der Weyden to create a masterpiece that would establish an international reputation. Van der Weyden positioned Christ's body in the T- shape of a cross bow to reflect the commission from Louvain
guild of archers for their Notre-Dame-hors-des-Murs chapel
Art historians have commented that this work was arguably the most influential Netherlandish painting of Christ's crucifixion
, and that it was copied and adapted on a large scale in the two centuries after its completion. The emotional impact of the weeping mourners grieving over Christ's body, and the subtle depiction of space in Van der Weyden's work have generated extensive critical comments, one of the most famous being, that of Erwin Panofsky
: "It may be said that the painted tear, a shining pearl born of the strongest emotion, epitomizes that which Italian most admired in Early Flemish painting: pictorial brilliance and sentiment".
relate the story only in connection with the Entombment of Christ
. According to the canonical gospels, Joseph of Arimathea took Christ’s body and prepared it for burial. John
(19:38-42) adds one assistant, Nicodemus. None of these accounts mention Mary. During the Middle Ages, the narrative of the Passion became more elaborate, and more attention was paid to the role of Christ's mother. One example is the anonymous 14th century text, Meditationes de Vita Christi, perhaps by Ludolph of Saxony
.
Barbara Lane has suggested that this passage from the Vita Christi
might lie behind many painted accounts of the Deposition, including Rogier's: "Then the lady reverently receives the hanging right hand and places it against her cheek gazes upon it, and kisses it with heavy tears and sorrowful sighs."
In her history of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, Miri Rubin writes that artists began to depict Mary swooning at the foot of the cross in the early 15th century, and that van der Weyden's Descent was the most influential painting to show this moment. This swooning was described by theologians with the word spasimo. In the early 16th century, such was the popularity of depictions of the swooning Virgin, Pope Julius II
was lobbied with a request to designate a holy day as a feast of the spasimo. The request was turned down.
Art historian Lorne Campbell has identified the figures in the painting as (from left to right): Mary Cleophas (half-sister to the Virgin Mary); Saint John the Evangelist, Mary Salome
(in green, another half-sister of the Virgin Mary), The Virgin Mary (swooning), the corspe of Jesus Christ, Nicodemus
(in red), a young man on the ladder - either a servant of Nicodemus or of Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph of Arimathea
(in field-of-cloth-of-gold robes, the most sumptuous costume in the painting), the bearded man behind Joseph holding a jar and probably another servant and Mary Magdalene
who adopts a dramatic pose on the right of the painting.
There is disagreement between art historians as to the representation of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Dirk de Vos identifies Joseph of Arimathea as the man in red supporting Christ's body, and Nicodemus as the sumptuously dressed man supporting Christ's legs, the opposite of Campbell's identification.
art; an innovation of van der Weyden. The sentiment, however, is a direct reflection of the mystical devotion expressed by Thomas à Kempis
' popular treatise Imitatio Christi, first published in 1418. The text, just as the image here, invites the reader or viewer to personally identify with the suffering of Christ and Mary. The doctrines of Denis the Carthusian
also emphasized the significance of the Virgin Mary and her belief in Christ at the moment of his death. Denis expresses the conviction that the Virgin Mary was near death when Christ gave up his spirit; Van der Weyden's painting powerfully conveys this idea.
The shape of the crossbow can be seen in the outline of Christ's body, reflecting the patronage of the Greater Guild of Crossbowmen. Powell argues that in medieval theology, a metaphor would compare Christ on the cross to a taut crossbow: "[this] bow consists of a piece of wood or horn and a string, which represents our Saviour. The string can represent his most holy body,
which was miraculously strained and stretched in the suffering of his Passion." The fourteenth century poet, Heinrich von Neustadt, wrote: "He was laid out on the cross:/There were his pure limbs/and his arms drawn/Like the string of a bow." In Rogier’s Deposition, Christ’s removal from the cross is pictured as the relaxation of a bow that has released its arrow.
Dirk de Vos suggests that the artist wished to evoke a gigantic, carved altarpiece with polychrome figures, and thus push painting forward as a rival to sculpture. The corners are filled with carved tracery, also gilded, while the presentation of living figures on a stage is intended as a tableau vivant
, which in turn imitates a sculptural group. There is a sense of condensed movement in a single instant. Mary faints but is already confirmed in her swoon by St John who rushes to her assistance. The man on the ladder lowers the body but it is already held by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who seems to want to carry it away to the right. Nicodemus’s movement transforms the weeping Magdalene
into a statue frozen in time. De Vos writes: "Time seems to have solidified into a composition. And what a composition. Interplay of undulating lines, swaying poses and counterposes of figures have rightly been compared to technique of counterpoint in polyphonic music."
The image can be read as a petrified synthesis of all the stages during and after the Descent from the Cross: the lowering of the corpse, the Deposition
, Lamentation
and the Entombment
. Christ’s feet appear to be still nailed together, while the spread of His arms retains the position of His body on the Cross. Christ’s body is shown as if held out for the concentrated gaze of the viewer. Joseph of Arimathea looks across the body towards the skull of Adam. Joseph appears as a sumptuously dressed burgher and has the most portrait-like appearance of the figures in the painting; his gaze links the hands of Christ and his mother, the new Adam and Eve, with the skull of Adam. Thereby visualising the essence of the Redemption.
De Vos also analyses the spatial complexity of the painting. The action takes place in a space barely a shoulder-width deep, yet there are no fewer than five levels of depth within the painting: the Virgin Mary at the front, the body of Christ, the bearded figure of Joseph of Arimathea, the cross and the assistant on his ladder. At the "back" of the painting, the assistant breaks the spatial illusion, by allowing one of the two nails he holds to protrude in front of the painted niche.
Campbell argues that the key to the work is not naturalism in the detail of the painting, but rather the use of distortion to induce a sense of unease in the viewer. By including completely irrational details and by distorting otherwise extremely faithful images of reality, the artist shocks us into reconsidering our attitudes to his subjects. Campbell suggests that, in certain aspects, Rogier has more in common with Matisse
or the Picasso
of Guernica
than with his contemporaries.
An example of the play with the illusion of space in the painting can be seen in the young man at the top of the ladder holding the nails withdrawn from Christ's body. Campbell points out that this servant behind the cross appears to have caught his sleeve in the wooden tracery depicted at the top of the painting. The head of one of the bloody nails that he holds is in front of the fictional wooden picture frame, though the point of the other nail is behind the tracery. Campbell argues that, in order to prevent these spatial distortion from becoming too obvious, Rogier took pains to conceal the principal pictorial junctions in the picture. For example, the ladder is in an impossible perspective: its top is behind the cross while its foot appears to be in front of the cross. To conceal the points at which the Cross and the ladder meet the landscape, Rogier has greatly lengthened the Virgin’s left leg, so that her left foot and mantle cover the base of the Cross and one upright of the ladder.
of Crossbowmen of Leuven
in today's Belgium - and was originally installed in the Chapel of Our Lady Without the Walls. The tiny crossbows in the side spandrel
s of the picture reflect the original patronage. De Vos and Campbell both give an approximate date of 1435 for the painting. De Vos argues that the earliest known copy of Van der Weyden's Deposition, the Edeleheere triptych in Louvain, may have been completed by 1435, certainly before 1443. This implies that Van der Weyden's painting pre-dates it. The painting was exchanged around 1548 for a copy by Michael Coxcie
and an organ. The new owner was Mary of Austria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, for whom she governed the Habsburg Netherlands
. The painting was initially installed in Mary's castle at Binche
, where it was seen by a Spanish courtier, Vicente Alvárez, who in 1551 wrote "It was the best picture in the whole castle and even, I believe, in the whole world, for I have seen in these parts many good paintings but none that equalled this in truth to nature or devoutness. All those who have seen it were of the same opinion."
Alvárez had accompanied the future king of Spain, Philip II
on his tour of his possessions in the Netherlands. After acquiring the Descent from his aunt Mary, Philip transported the painting to Spain, where it was installed in his hunting lodge, El Pardo
. On April 15, 1574, the painting was recorded in the inventory of the monastery palace which Philip had founded, San Lorenzo de El Escorial
: "A large panel on which is painted the deposition from the cross, with our Lady and eight other figures ... by the hand of Maestre Rogier, which used to belong to the queen Mary".
When Civil War
broke out in Spain in 1936, many religious works of art were destroyed. The Spanish Republic
took action to protect its artistic masterpieces; The Descent from the Cross was evacuated from El Escorial to Valencia. It was brought to Switzerland by train in the summer of 1939, where the Spanish Republic publicised its plight with an exhibition: "Masterpieces of the Prado", held in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire
in Geneva
. That September, the painting returned to the Prado, where it has since remained. By 1992, the Descent was in a state of decay with cracks in the panel threatening to split the painting, and a marked deterioration of the paint surface. A major restoration of the painting was carried out by the Prado, under the supervision of George Bisacca from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York.
published an engraving by Cornelis Cort
, the first graphic reproduction of Rogier’s Descent, which is inscribed with the words ‘M. Rogerij Belgiae inuentum’. Cock’s engraving is the earliest record of Rogier’s name in association with the Deposition.
In 1953 art historian Otto Von Simson claimed that "no other painting of its school has been copied or adapted so often". In a 2010 BBC documentary examining the history and influence of The Descent From The Cross, Professor Susie Nash of the Courtauld Institute of Art
commented, "It seems that the innovation that van der Weyden made were so striking that other artists throughout Europe, almost could not get away from them. They are quoted again and again and again." Nash concluded, "I think there’s a very, very strong case to be made that this is the most important painting of the whole period of the entire 15th century."
In January 2009 Google Earth
's collaborative project with the Prado made twelve of its masterpieces, including Descent from the Cross, available at a resolution of 14,000 megapixels, some 1,400 times greater than a picture taken on a standard digital camera.
Panel painting
A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel made of wood, either a single piece, or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, it was the normal form of support for a painting not on a wall or vellum, which was used for...
by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden created c. 1435, now in the Museo del Prado
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. The work shows the Deposition of Christ. The crucified Christ is lowered from the cross, his lifeless body held by Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.-Gospel references:...
and Nicodemus
Nicodemus
Saint Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, who, according to the Gospel of John, showed favour to Jesus...
.
The c. 1435 date is estimated based on the work's style, and because the artist acquired wealth and renown around this time, most likely from the prestige this work allowed him. It was painted early in his career, shortly after he completed his apprenticeship with Robert Campin
Robert Campin
Robert Campin , now usually identified as the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first great master of Early Netherlandish painting...
and shows the older painter's influence, most notable in the hard sculpted surfaces, realistic facial features and vivid primary colours, mostly reds, whites and blues. The work was a self-conscious attempt by van der Weyden to create a masterpiece that would establish an international reputation. Van der Weyden positioned Christ's body in the T- shape of a cross bow to reflect the commission from Louvain
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
guild of archers for their Notre-Dame-hors-des-Murs chapel
Art historians have commented that this work was arguably the most influential Netherlandish painting of Christ's crucifixion
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
, and that it was copied and adapted on a large scale in the two centuries after its completion. The emotional impact of the weeping mourners grieving over Christ's body, and the subtle depiction of space in Van der Weyden's work have generated extensive critical comments, one of the most famous being, that of Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky was a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography...
: "It may be said that the painted tear, a shining pearl born of the strongest emotion, epitomizes that which Italian most admired in Early Flemish painting: pictorial brilliance and sentiment".
Description
In their accounts of the descent of Christ's body from the Cross, the evangelistsFour Evangelists
In Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...
relate the story only in connection with the Entombment of Christ
Entombment of Christ
The Entombment redirects here. For other uses, The Entombment The Entombment of Christ, that is to say the burial of Jesus Christ, occurred after his death by crucifixion, when, according to the gospel accounts, he was placed in a new tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea.-Biblical account:All four...
. According to the canonical gospels, Joseph of Arimathea took Christ’s body and prepared it for burial. John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
(19:38-42) adds one assistant, Nicodemus. None of these accounts mention Mary. During the Middle Ages, the narrative of the Passion became more elaborate, and more attention was paid to the role of Christ's mother. One example is the anonymous 14th century text, Meditationes de Vita Christi, perhaps by Ludolph of Saxony
Ludolph of Saxony
Ludolph of Saxony , also known as Ludolphus de Saxonia and Ludolph the Carthusian, was a German Roman Catholic theologian of the fourteenth century.His principle work, Vita Christi was written in 1374...
.
Barbara Lane has suggested that this passage from the Vita Christi
Vita Christi
The Vita Christi, i.e. Life of Christ is the principal work of Ludolph of Saxony, completed in 1374.The book is not just a biography of Jesus, but a history, a commentary borrowed from the Church Fathers, a series of dogmatic and moral dissertations, of spiritual instructions, meditations, and...
might lie behind many painted accounts of the Deposition, including Rogier's: "Then the lady reverently receives the hanging right hand and places it against her cheek gazes upon it, and kisses it with heavy tears and sorrowful sighs."
In her history of the veneration of the Virgin Mary, Miri Rubin writes that artists began to depict Mary swooning at the foot of the cross in the early 15th century, and that van der Weyden's Descent was the most influential painting to show this moment. This swooning was described by theologians with the word spasimo. In the early 16th century, such was the popularity of depictions of the swooning Virgin, Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II , nicknamed "The Fearsome Pope" and "The Warrior Pope" , born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513...
was lobbied with a request to designate a holy day as a feast of the spasimo. The request was turned down.
Art historian Lorne Campbell has identified the figures in the painting as (from left to right): Mary Cleophas (half-sister to the Virgin Mary); Saint John the Evangelist, Mary Salome
Salome (disciple)
Salome , sometimes venerated as Mary Salome, was a follower of Jesus who appears briefly in the canonical gospels and in more detail in apocryphal writings...
(in green, another half-sister of the Virgin Mary), The Virgin Mary (swooning), the corspe of Jesus Christ, Nicodemus
Nicodemus
Saint Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, who, according to the Gospel of John, showed favour to Jesus...
(in red), a young man on the ladder - either a servant of Nicodemus or of Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.-Gospel references:...
(in field-of-cloth-of-gold robes, the most sumptuous costume in the painting), the bearded man behind Joseph holding a jar and probably another servant and Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
who adopts a dramatic pose on the right of the painting.
There is disagreement between art historians as to the representation of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Dirk de Vos identifies Joseph of Arimathea as the man in red supporting Christ's body, and Nicodemus as the sumptuously dressed man supporting Christ's legs, the opposite of Campbell's identification.
Sources and style
What makes the work unique for the period is the swoon of the Virgin Mary, collapsing in a pose that mirrors that of her son, right down to the two figures that hold her as she falls. This pose was entirely new for Early NetherlandishEarly Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
art; an innovation of van der Weyden. The sentiment, however, is a direct reflection of the mystical devotion expressed by Thomas à Kempis
Thomas à Kempis
Thomas à Kempis was a late Medieval Catholic monk and the probable author of The Imitation of Christ, which is one of the best known Christian books on devotion. His name means, "Thomas of Kempen", his home town and in German he is known as Thomas von Kempen...
' popular treatise Imitatio Christi, first published in 1418. The text, just as the image here, invites the reader or viewer to personally identify with the suffering of Christ and Mary. The doctrines of Denis the Carthusian
Denis the Carthusian
Denis the Carthusian , also known as Denys van Leeuwen or Denis Ryckel, was a Roman Catholic theologian and mystic.-Life:...
also emphasized the significance of the Virgin Mary and her belief in Christ at the moment of his death. Denis expresses the conviction that the Virgin Mary was near death when Christ gave up his spirit; Van der Weyden's painting powerfully conveys this idea.
The shape of the crossbow can be seen in the outline of Christ's body, reflecting the patronage of the Greater Guild of Crossbowmen. Powell argues that in medieval theology, a metaphor would compare Christ on the cross to a taut crossbow: "[this] bow consists of a piece of wood or horn and a string, which represents our Saviour. The string can represent his most holy body,
which was miraculously strained and stretched in the suffering of his Passion." The fourteenth century poet, Heinrich von Neustadt, wrote: "He was laid out on the cross:/There were his pure limbs/and his arms drawn/Like the string of a bow." In Rogier’s Deposition, Christ’s removal from the cross is pictured as the relaxation of a bow that has released its arrow.
Dirk de Vos suggests that the artist wished to evoke a gigantic, carved altarpiece with polychrome figures, and thus push painting forward as a rival to sculpture. The corners are filled with carved tracery, also gilded, while the presentation of living figures on a stage is intended as a tableau vivant
Tableau vivant
Tableau vivant is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move...
, which in turn imitates a sculptural group. There is a sense of condensed movement in a single instant. Mary faints but is already confirmed in her swoon by St John who rushes to her assistance. The man on the ladder lowers the body but it is already held by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who seems to want to carry it away to the right. Nicodemus’s movement transforms the weeping Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
into a statue frozen in time. De Vos writes: "Time seems to have solidified into a composition. And what a composition. Interplay of undulating lines, swaying poses and counterposes of figures have rightly been compared to technique of counterpoint in polyphonic music."
The image can be read as a petrified synthesis of all the stages during and after the Descent from the Cross: the lowering of the corpse, the Deposition
Descent from the Cross
The Descent from the Cross , or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion . In Byzantine art the topic became popular in the 9th century, and in the West from the...
, Lamentation
Lamentation of Christ
350px|thumb|Lamentation by [[Giotto di Bondone]] in the [[Scrovegni Chapel]]The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends and family mourned over his body...
and the Entombment
Entombment of Christ
The Entombment redirects here. For other uses, The Entombment The Entombment of Christ, that is to say the burial of Jesus Christ, occurred after his death by crucifixion, when, according to the gospel accounts, he was placed in a new tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea.-Biblical account:All four...
. Christ’s feet appear to be still nailed together, while the spread of His arms retains the position of His body on the Cross. Christ’s body is shown as if held out for the concentrated gaze of the viewer. Joseph of Arimathea looks across the body towards the skull of Adam. Joseph appears as a sumptuously dressed burgher and has the most portrait-like appearance of the figures in the painting; his gaze links the hands of Christ and his mother, the new Adam and Eve, with the skull of Adam. Thereby visualising the essence of the Redemption.
De Vos also analyses the spatial complexity of the painting. The action takes place in a space barely a shoulder-width deep, yet there are no fewer than five levels of depth within the painting: the Virgin Mary at the front, the body of Christ, the bearded figure of Joseph of Arimathea, the cross and the assistant on his ladder. At the "back" of the painting, the assistant breaks the spatial illusion, by allowing one of the two nails he holds to protrude in front of the painted niche.
Campbell argues that the key to the work is not naturalism in the detail of the painting, but rather the use of distortion to induce a sense of unease in the viewer. By including completely irrational details and by distorting otherwise extremely faithful images of reality, the artist shocks us into reconsidering our attitudes to his subjects. Campbell suggests that, in certain aspects, Rogier has more in common with Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
or the Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
of Guernica
Guernica (painting)
Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War...
than with his contemporaries.
An example of the play with the illusion of space in the painting can be seen in the young man at the top of the ladder holding the nails withdrawn from Christ's body. Campbell points out that this servant behind the cross appears to have caught his sleeve in the wooden tracery depicted at the top of the painting. The head of one of the bloody nails that he holds is in front of the fictional wooden picture frame, though the point of the other nail is behind the tracery. Campbell argues that, in order to prevent these spatial distortion from becoming too obvious, Rogier took pains to conceal the principal pictorial junctions in the picture. For example, the ladder is in an impossible perspective: its top is behind the cross while its foot appears to be in front of the cross. To conceal the points at which the Cross and the ladder meet the landscape, Rogier has greatly lengthened the Virgin’s left leg, so that her left foot and mantle cover the base of the Cross and one upright of the ladder.
Provenance
The painting was commissioned by the Greater GuildGuild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
of Crossbowmen of Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
in today's Belgium - and was originally installed in the Chapel of Our Lady Without the Walls. The tiny crossbows in the side spandrel
Spandrel
A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
s of the picture reflect the original patronage. De Vos and Campbell both give an approximate date of 1435 for the painting. De Vos argues that the earliest known copy of Van der Weyden's Deposition, the Edeleheere triptych in Louvain, may have been completed by 1435, certainly before 1443. This implies that Van der Weyden's painting pre-dates it. The painting was exchanged around 1548 for a copy by Michael Coxcie
Michael Coxcie
Michiel Coxie, Coxie also spelled Coxcie or Coxien, Latinised name Coxius was a Flemish painter who studied under Bernard van Orley, who probably induced him to visit the Italian peninsula....
and an organ. The new owner was Mary of Austria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, for whom she governed the Habsburg Netherlands
Habsburg Netherlands
The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1556/1581 and solely the Southern Netherlands from 1581 to 1794...
. The painting was initially installed in Mary's castle at Binche
Binche
Binche is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Binche had a total population of 32,409. The total area is 60.66 km² which gives a population density of 534 inhabitants per km²...
, where it was seen by a Spanish courtier, Vicente Alvárez, who in 1551 wrote "It was the best picture in the whole castle and even, I believe, in the whole world, for I have seen in these parts many good paintings but none that equalled this in truth to nature or devoutness. All those who have seen it were of the same opinion."
Alvárez had accompanied the future king of Spain, Philip II
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
on his tour of his possessions in the Netherlands. After acquiring the Descent from his aunt Mary, Philip transported the painting to Spain, where it was installed in his hunting lodge, El Pardo
El Pardo
The Royal Palace of El Pardo is a historical building near Madrid, Spain, in the present-day district of Fuencarral-El Pardo. Owned by the Spanish state and administered by the Patrimonio Nacional agency, the palace began as a hunting lodge.-Overview:...
. On April 15, 1574, the painting was recorded in the inventory of the monastery palace which Philip had founded, San Lorenzo de El Escorial
El Escorial
The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...
: "A large panel on which is painted the deposition from the cross, with our Lady and eight other figures ... by the hand of Maestre Rogier, which used to belong to the queen Mary".
When Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
broke out in Spain in 1936, many religious works of art were destroyed. The Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
took action to protect its artistic masterpieces; The Descent from the Cross was evacuated from El Escorial to Valencia. It was brought to Switzerland by train in the summer of 1939, where the Spanish Republic publicised its plight with an exhibition: "Masterpieces of the Prado", held in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva)
The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire is the largest art museum in Geneva, Switzerland.-The building:The museum is located in Les Tranchées, in the city centre, on the site of the former fortification ring. It was built by the architect Marc Camoletti between 1903 and 1910, and financed by a bequest from...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. That September, the painting returned to the Prado, where it has since remained. By 1992, the Descent was in a state of decay with cracks in the panel threatening to split the painting, and a marked deterioration of the paint surface. A major restoration of the painting was carried out by the Prado, under the supervision of George Bisacca from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York.
Influence
Since its creation the work has been often copied and is extremely influential; within van der Weyden's own lifetime it was considered an important and unique work of art. In 1565, the Antwerp publisher Hieronymus CockHieronymus Cock
Jérôme or Hieronymus Cock, or Wellens de Cock was a Flemish painter and etcher of the Northern Renaissance, as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.-Biography:...
published an engraving by Cornelis Cort
Cornelis Cort
Cornelis Cort was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. He spent the last 12 years of his life in Italy, where he was known as Cornelio Fiammingo.-Biography:...
, the first graphic reproduction of Rogier’s Descent, which is inscribed with the words ‘M. Rogerij Belgiae inuentum’. Cock’s engraving is the earliest record of Rogier’s name in association with the Deposition.
In 1953 art historian Otto Von Simson claimed that "no other painting of its school has been copied or adapted so often". In a 2010 BBC documentary examining the history and influence of The Descent From The Cross, Professor Susie Nash of the Courtauld Institute of Art
Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...
commented, "It seems that the innovation that van der Weyden made were so striking that other artists throughout Europe, almost could not get away from them. They are quoted again and again and again." Nash concluded, "I think there’s a very, very strong case to be made that this is the most important painting of the whole period of the entire 15th century."
In January 2009 Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
's collaborative project with the Prado made twelve of its masterpieces, including Descent from the Cross, available at a resolution of 14,000 megapixels, some 1,400 times greater than a picture taken on a standard digital camera.