Shop art print and framed art Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden

The Descent from the Cross is an oil painting on wood panel by the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden, painted around 1435. The painting depicts the descent of Christ from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. It is on display at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The painting was commissioned by the crossbowmen's guild of Louvain in Belgium to be installed as an altarpiece in the town's Chapel of Our Lady Outside the Walls. The presence of crossbows in the upper corners is a reminder of who commissioned the work. Art historians Dirk De Vos and Lorne Campbell give the approximate date of completion as 1435, but De Vos maintains that it must be 1443, as a copy dates from that year. Around 1548, the painting was exchanged for a copy by Michiel Coxcie and an organ for Mary of Hungary (Charles V's sister). Mary installed the painting in the chapel of her castle in Binche, where it was seen by many courtiers, including Vicente Alvarez, who wrote in 1551: "It was the most beautiful painting in the whole castle and even, I believe, in the whole world, for I have seen many good paintings in these regions, but none that equalled this truth in nature or devotion. All those who saw it were of the same opinion". When Mary died, her nephew Philip II inherited it and had it installed in his hunting lodge in the Prado. On 15 April 1574, the painting was included in the inventory of the Museo de El Escorial, along with other paintings in a triptych. In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the flemish & northern renaissance style.

 

Find the full description of Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden on Wikipedia.