Deposition of Christ

The descent from the cross

The Deposition is the removal of the body. Joseph of Arimathea asks for it, the gospels say, and takes it away; the mechanics of getting a body down are not described, so the ladders and the supporting arms belong to painting. The subject is a single movement, and it lasts only as long as the body is between the cross and the ground.

Where it falls in the cycle

Between the Crucifixion and the Lamentation. It is scarce here: four titles in this catalogue name a Deposition. Eighteen works are entered under this artist, more than under any other name in the catalogue, and they range across the Passion rather than settling on one episode.

The catalogue entry

The record gives Tintoretto, 1559, and the Museo Soumaya, Mexico City, Mexico, the only location in Mexico among the works described here. It measures 52 x 75 cm, small and horizontal, which for this subject suggests a study or a reduced version rather than an altarpiece, though the record says neither. The style is entered as Mannerism Late Renaissance and the artist as Italian; the subject fields class the work as a group composition and as religious. The measured palette reads as brown.