Descent from the Cross

Descent from the Cross, triptych created by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens in 1611–14 for the altar of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, commissioned by the city’s Guild of the Arquebusiers (“Musketeers”). Rubens began the work after his return from a prolonged visit to Italy, and the resulting altarpiece is rife with lessons he learned there, from the rich Venetian colours to the dramatic lighting of Caravaggio and the muscular perfection of classical sculpture.

In the central panel of the triptych, an extraordinary group of interlocking figures is arranged around the slumped form of the dead Jesus. The diagonal composition is astonishingly dynamic, following the movement of Jesus’s pale yet muscular body as he slides off the cross—from the man who clenches the shroud in his teeth at the upper right, to the three Marys, whose outstretched arms form a triangle at the lower left. The richly robed Nicodemus stands above the Virgin Mary. On the other side of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea descends the ladder, and John the Apostle, in red robes, bears the weight of the body. Each figure participates not only in this activity, but in the grief and emotion of this moment.

The scenes on the wings do not form a continuum with the composition of the Descent but do have an iconographic link. The patron saint of the Arquebusiers was St. Christopher, whose Greek name means the “Christ bearer,” and who appears on one of the altarpiece’s outer panels. The guild’s dean was Burgomaster Nicolaas Rockox, a close friend of Rubens’s, whose portrait appears on the left edge of the altarpiece’s right wing. All three scenes on the interior—the Descent (centre), the Visitation (left), and the Presentation in the Temple (right) depict incidents in which Christ is physically carried or supported.