Getty Museum
The Deposition
Creator
Rogier van der WeydenArtist · 1399–1464
All works by this person →Rogier van der Weyden's early training and occupation are unknown; in his twenty-seventh year, he entered the workshop of Robert Campin, the dean of the painters' guild of Tournai. Rogier remained Campin's assistant for five years and then became an independent master in the guild. From Campin, Rogier adopted the detailed realism that characterizes his works. At age thirty-six Rogier settled in Br
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1490
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Culture
- Netherlandish
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Two of Christ's followers, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, carry his body from the cross to the tomb. Mary, his mother, kneels and pulls her son's face close to hers for one last moment, while Mary Magdalene kneels tearfully at his feet in splendid brocaded robes. Death has transformed Christ's green-tinged, rigid body in horrific detail: his hands are clenched into agonized claws, bloody scars from his Crown of Thorns dot his forehead, and his wounds are graphically evident. The artist, a follower of Rogier van der Weyden, based this painting on Weyden's altarpiece, now in the Prado in Madrid. As Weyden did, this artist described faces, fabrics, and objects in great detail and arranged the figures as though in a frieze. The shallow space is further limited by the use of the gold-stippled background.
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