The Descent from the Cross
Christ’s dead body slides down a white sheet into the arms of his friends. Rubens builds the picture on a single powerful diagonal and fills it with movement and flesh.
The white sheet is the backbone of the picture and makes the body glow against the dark.
The Descent from the Cross is the central panel of a large altarpiece with wings in Antwerp Cathedral. It was commissioned in 1611 by the city’s guild of arquebusiers, whose patron saint was Saint Christopher. Rubens had recently returned home after eight years in Italy and was on his way to becoming the leading painter in the Netherlands. The central panel was painted in 1611–1612 and the wings were finished in 1614. Together with The Elevation of the Cross, which stands in the same cathedral, it is among the works that made him famous.
The central panel shows Christ’s dead body being taken down from the cross. Two men at the top of ladders lower the body with the help of a large white sheet. One of them holds the sheet in his teeth. Further down John, in a red cloak, receives the body. Mary stands on the left and stretches out her arm. Mary Magdalene receives Christ’s foot, which rests on her shoulder. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus help. All hands and eyes are directed towards the dead body, which slides down as if in a single flow.
The inner sides of the wings show the Visitation, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, and the Presentation in the Temple. When the wings are closed, Saint Christopher can be seen carrying the Christ Child across a river. All the pictures share a common theme: carrying Christ. The name Christopher means precisely Christ-bearer, and the guild wanted to honour its saint. Together the panels form a coherent programme on the life and death of Christ.
The composition is built on a strong diagonal from the upper right corner to the lower left. Christ’s body is pale and heavy and glows against the dark. The white sheet acts as the backbone of the picture. Rubens had studied ancient sculpture in Rome, and the body recalls the Laocoön. The light and the drama show that he had also been influenced by Caravaggio.
Rubens painted in oil on wood. He built up the bodies with warm and cool tones, and the skin comes to life through small shifts of pink, grey and yellow. His large workshop often helped with major commissions, but this picture is thought to be largely his own. The colours are deep and saturated. John’s red cloak is the strongest area of colour in the picture and brings the centre forward.
During the French Revolutionary Wars the altarpiece was taken to Paris in 1794, as was Rubens’s Elevation of the Cross. Both were returned after Napoleon’s fall in 1815. Today both hang in the cathedral. They have since been restored several times.
The Descent from the Cross is regarded as one of the most important works of the Baroque. It shows how Rubens combined Italian grandeur with Netherlandish precision. The picture also became famous through the 1872 novel A Dog of Flanders, in which the poor boy Nello dreams of seeing Rubens’s paintings in the cathedral.