Deposition of Christ

The Deposition of Christ is a tempera panel painted by Fra Angelico between 1432 and 1434, now held in the National Museum of San Marco in Florence. The commission was originally given to Lorenzo Monaco for the Strozzi Chapel in the Florentine church of Santa Trinita; after Monaco's death in 1425, Fra Angelico was asked to complete it. The work is tied to its patron, Palla Strozzi, a wealthy member of the oligarchic faction that opposed the Medici. Its composition is one of its most notable features: rather than dividing the scene into separate compartments, Fra Angelico paints one continuous scene in which figures recede into a landscape, an approach still uncommon at the time. Christ is lowered from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, while Mary Magdalene kisses his feet and the Virgin prays with her hands joined. The background offers a walled city and Tuscan hills, and the flowery meadow in the foreground recalls Flemish painting. The luminous tempera, recovered in a recent restoration, and the calm treatment of the figures make the altarpiece a bridge between International Gothic and the spatial realism of the early Renaissance.

Painter

Fra Angelico

Date

1500

Medium

tempera, panel

Dimensions

275 × 285 cm

Museum

Museum of San Marco, Florence

Movement

Italian Renaissance, Early Renaissance

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Descent from the Cross, angel, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Jesus Christ, man

Share:FacebookWhatsApp