The Descendent of the Messiah. The Deposition of Christ painted by the artist Rogier van der Weyden is the most influential Netherlandish painting of Christ’s crucifixion. Based on the work’s style, and because van der Weyden reached renown around this time, is estimated that the painting was created in the year 1435 (1). The painting was an altarpiece, intended for the Chapel of the Confraternity of the Archers of Leuven, who commissioned it. The scene shown would have lasted a moment, but there is nothing momentary about its depiction, which is quite attached to the historical event.
Rogier emphasized the energy of the painting creating a life-like piece that clearly recreates the moment of pain for Christ and his friends. 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 publicized its plight with an exhibition: “Masterpieces of the Prado”, held in the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva.
That September, the painting returned to the Prado, where it has since remained (2) (3). 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 (4). The Deposition was painted early in the artist’s career showing the influence of his professor Robert Campin. The main characteristics of his work were the realistic facial features and the vivid colors like reds, whites and blues.
He positioned Christ’s body in the T-shape of a crossbow to reflect the commission from the Leuven guild of archers for their chapel. The emotional impact of the figures grieving over Jesus’s body, and the subtle depiction of space in van der Weyden’s work generated that the piece was copied and adapted on a large scale in the two centuries after its completion(5). Many historians have identified the figures at the painting as (on the right hand side) John the Evangelist, Mary Salome a half-sister of The Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene who adopts a dramatic pose, and The Virgin Mary.
In the middle a corpse of Jesus Christ, Nicodemus in red, and a young man on the ladder either servant of Nicodemus or of Joseph of Arimathea. On the left Joseph of Arimathea in the gold rope, Mary Cleophas another half-sister of The Virgin Mary, and the bald man in the back holding the jar is probably another servant (6). This painting has typical characteristics of the 1400s Northern Renaissance like the complicated angular folds of drapery seen in The Virgin Mary and also the figures in the far end.
The way the figures are about life size and crammed into a small space is a difference between this work and other contemporaries. This piece is confined to a very shallow space that pushes the figures up against the front of the picture plane. It truly enhances the dramatic quality. This goes hand in hand with the emotional behavior of the people in the painting. One example to analyze is Mary Magdalene in the back who is crying, her nose is red, there are tears coming down her cheek.
It seems like a tear is about to go into her mouth; and as one look at that is almost as if one can taste what a tear tastes like. This really helps to empathize and makes one feels like being there in front of these people which was the real purpose of van der Weyden. The way van der Weyden arranges his composition with four people on the left and only three people on the right could seem that this picture looks off-balanced, but the figures on the right where there is only three people have much more elaborated clothing ith fancy brocade, or Mary Magdalene in the far right who is in clothing with three or four different colors.
Whereas everyone on the left is in plane solid clothing with no patterns, very few colors used. That helps simplify that side, compensating for the additional figures over there. The Deposition of Christ shows the moment of sorrow when Jesus Christ the Messiah is removed from the cross to be taken away for burial. In this image Christ is heading down to his mother’s lap, and van der Weyden has echoed their poses.
The position that Christ goes in is very much like the one The Virgin Mary is in. This shows the relationship mother and son between them that is no shared with any other figure present. There is also another link with this position that comes to remember the resurrection of Christ because The Virgin Mary looks pale and has fainted, however; she will regain consciousness and wake up again like Christ will do within three days. The detail of the skull on the floor is tempting to think of as a reminder of death, but is actually part of another traditional Christian teaching.
It could be a reminder of death, though, but its more literal meaning is that there was a belief that Christ was crucified on the spot where Adam, from Adam and Eva, was buried. Van der Weyden brings this just as Adam was the old man of the Old Testament, Christ is in a way the new Adam, the birth and the presence of the new man under the Christian law the New Testament. So, Adam an Eva having caused the fall of the mankind into sin and Christ and The Virgin Mary redeeming mankind from that original sin. This painting is a very emotional masterpiece with great value not only for Christians but for everybody that really appreciate art.
Van der Weyden compresses in this painting the most important story of the humanity with a maximum amount of human emotions and suffering. The Deposition is among the outstanding masterpieces of Netherlands’ art, and one of the mainstays of Rogier’s fame. As the work of a painter aged 35 to 40, it can hardly be described as a youthful production, yet only with this painting can we begin to see Rogier more clearly as an artistic personality. Most important of all, the picture shows unmistakable similarities with some of his major work (7).