The Descent from the Cross

Men lean over the crossbar, one gripping the shroud in his teeth, as Christ's body is lowered into waiting arms. Rubens painted it for an Antwerp guild, and after two wartime removals it still hangs where it was made to hang.

The story behind the painting

On 7 September 1611 the Confraternity of the Arquebusiers in Antwerp, whose patron saint was Saint Christopher, commissioned Rubens to paint a triptych. Wikidata dates the work 1611, the year of the commission, while Wikipedia dates the painting to 1612 to 1614. The Descent from the Cross is its central panel, and it remains in its original place, the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. It is considered one of Rubens' masterpieces. History did not leave it in peace: in 1794 the occupying French army sent it to the Louvre, it came back in 1815, and in 1914 the Imperial German Army took it to Berlin, returning it only after the armistice of 1918.

What to look for

The figures form an interlocking oval around the lifeless body. Saint John, in a scarlet cloak with one foot on the ladder, takes most of Christ's weight, helped by Joseph of Arimathea. Nicodemus stands higher on the ladder, and two men lean over the crossbar, one holding the winding sheet between his teeth to free his hands. Mary Magdalene and Mary Cleophas kneel at the foot of the cross, while the Virgin stands upright, reaching toward her Son, her anguish in her pale face. On the ground lie the inscription and a copper basin with the crown of thorns and nails. Strong light against a dark background gives the group the effect of a relief, and the evening sky opens on the left.

Meaning and intent

Rubens shows the lowering of Christ as a solemn, almost ritual act, unlike the more dramatic Italian painters who influenced him. In the context of the Counter-Reformation, the image invites believers to feel the weight of Christ's sacrifice and reminds them of his divine nature. Rubens also turns the Virgin from a figure of frailty into one of fortitude, following the Gospel of John; her standing pose matches the Catholic emphasis on Mary's part in redemption, which Protestants limited or denied. On the outer shutters the guild's patron Christopher, the Christ-bearer, carries the Child across a stream, a metaphor for the Eucharist and the real presence of Christ's body at Mass.

Legacy

The inner wings frame the death with scenes from the beginning of Christ's life: on the left the pregnant Virgin visits her cousin Elizabeth on a raised bridge with a classical portico, and on the right the old Simeon receives the Christ child in a carefully built temple interior. The subject stayed with Rubens throughout his career, and beyond the Antwerp altarpiece he painted three or more other versions of the descent. The bold posture of the workmen recalls a composition by Daniele da Volterra, and the work grows out of the Italian Mannerist tradition, but its calm and ritual mood made it its own.