The limp body slides down along a long white sheet.
Bible in art · Luke
The Descent from the Cross: Second Plate
Rembrandt · 1633
Art Institute of Chicago
A large etching of 1633, signed “Rembrandt f. cum pryvl.” — with a privilege against copies. It repeats a painting he made for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange. Rembrandt’s torchlit Descent of 1654, also at this verse, is small, dark and quiet by comparison.
Rays of light fall on the men who lower the heavy body along a long sheet. A man in a turban watches at the left, and the women kneel at the foot of the cross.
From the text
- Joseph, a Council member, asks for the body (Luke 23:50–52)
- “He took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth” (Luke 23:53)
- The women who had followed him from Galilee (Luke 23:49)
The artist’s own
- Long beams of light breaking through a dark sky
- A man in a turban and fur-trimmed coat leaning on a stick
- A young man on the ladder who, the museum notes, has Rembrandt’s own features
Details
The body
On the ladder
A young man on the ladder holds the arm.
The watcher
A richly dressed man in a turban leans on a stick and watches.
Light
Beams of light cut through the dark sky.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. Art Institute of Chicago (Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1938.1755) · Etching and burin on ivory laid paper · Art Institute of Chicago: API record "is_public_domain": true; the image is released under the "CC0 Public Domain Designation" (artic.edu open access; API data licensed CC0 1.0).