CODART Canon

Descent from the Cross

Rogier van der Weyden, ca. 1435 — 1440
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Rogier’s composition, made for the private chapel of the Crossbowmen’s Guild in Leuven, served as a major source of inspiration for artists throughout Europe in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish Habsburgs developed a fervent devotion to the altarpiece, and since the twentieth century it has been a masterpiece of the Prado, where it continues to astonish and fascinate museum visitors. A painted golden altar shrine is entirely covered with almost life-sized figures. But these are not sculptures but living people. It is as if the Passion scene has come to life in the shrine and become tangible for us. The grief-stricken reactions to Christ’s death are depicted in a range of facial expressions and gestures. Mary’s posture reflects that of the deceased Christ, identifying her as Co-Redemptrix. Her impressive figure, like that of the hand-wringing Magdalene, lived on for over a hundred years in the works of other painters, sculptors and graphic artists.

— Stephan Kemperdick, Curator of Early Netherlandish and Early German Painting, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin