The Descent from the Cross
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
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View in the galleryAbout this painting
A painting pretending to be a carved shrine: almost life-size figures pressed into a shallow gilded box until they read as painted sculpture. The Virgin faints in her son's posture, her white against his grey; Stephan Kemperdick reads her as Co-Redemptrix. The skull is Adam's, Christ crucified over his grave.
Leuven's crossbowmen commissioned it, and the Prado identifies them by the two small crossbows hanging from the tracery in the corners. It finds another in the body: Christ's outstretched arms take that shape. Their weapon hangs twice in the corners. In the middle it is a corpse.
Sources: Museo Nacional del Prado, catalogue entry, inv. P002825 · Museo Nacional del Prado, 'Easy-to-read' artwork page · Stephan Kemperdick (Curator, Gemaldegalerie Berlin), CODART Canon · Smarthistory, 'Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition' · Museo Nacional del Prado, Voice resource
And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews), besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave leave. He came therefore and took away the body of Jesus.
John 19:38 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 30,000 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.