(Tournai 1400–1464 Brussels)
The Descent from the Cross,
oil on panel, 79.5 x 60 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Antonio Plasencia Bohigas (1845–1936), Bilbao;
thence by descent to Rafael de Garamendi Ordenana (1882–1945), Bilbao;
thence by descent to the present owners - the Gonzalez de Aguilar family, Madrid

Literature:
E. Bermejo, La pintura de los primitivos flamencos en España, vol. I, Madrid 1980, cat. no. 30g, fig. 105

The present panel, which dates from the second half of the fifteenth century, repeats a composition by the Burgundian Court painter Rogier van der Weyden, the original of which is now lost, but which was identified by Friedländer from period versions still extant, executed by the artist’s workshop and immediate circle (see M. J. Friedländer, Rogier van Weyden and the Master of Flemalle, in: M. J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. II, Leiden 1967, cat. no. 97).

The realism of the present Descent from the Cross with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and Joseph of Arimathea uses the texturing of rich oil glazes and compositional ingenuity to give a sense of three dimensionality, so celebrated in van der Weyden’s earlier 1436 Descent from the Cross now conserved in the Prado, Madrid. Here, as there, the densely packed grouping, with their shadows falling on the ladder, the cross and gilded background push behind them the figures forward into the pictorial space, heightening the emotional impact and instilling a sense of the deposition before us unfolding in the present.

The frame bears the label of the Cano family of framers, who re-framed much of the Prado’s collection in the first half of the twentieth century.

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

The underdrawing shown by IR reflectography is linear and thin, made with a black dry medium, and it appears to be not fluent, frequently interrupted, sometimes quite detailed and sometimes not, as in the faces of the Virgin Mary and Saint John, whose eyes are quickly placed, as simple circles, without details; or Christ’s ones, only sketched with the upper and lower eyelids. Various parts seem to have been performed by first intention, not only in the folds of the clothes but also in other details, such as the cheek and chin of the Madonna, the base of the noses near the nostrils and the mouths marked with lines passed over two or three times. Hatching was used only in a couple of places – i.e. in the Christ’s neck and along the lower jaw of Saint John – made with short and spaced strokes. Almost all the shadows were placed while painting, presumably observing a drawn model.

Regarding the pictorial technique relating to pigments, the spectroscopic analyses revealed the presence of azurite as the only blue, variously mixed with lead white. The carmine-type red lake, extracted from coccids, is evident in the mantle of Saint John and in the blood of Christ. Vermilion appears in the intense red of the sleeve of the right figure and, mixed with white, in the pinkish flesh tones, with the addition of iron oxides in the shadows of the Christ. Yellow ochre and earths were used in the browns. Peculiar is the processing of the background, where the layer of copper-based green is partially covered with short vertical strokes of black, as if to suggest an intimate atmosphere, an altar base or an interior, placing the work in the context of private devotion. Specific attention is paid to the decorations of the borders of some of the dresses, such as the mantle of the Virgin, with the golden lacing made with fine light yellow strokes and points (lead-tin yellow) laid on a brown base with halftones (yellow-brown ochre).