Descent from the Cross by Torchlight

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) Dutch

Not on view

This etching is part of a series of scenes from the Passion of Christ that Rembrandt created around 1654. Here, he diverged from traditional representations of the Descent from the Cross by focusing on the silent activity of taking down and burying Christ’s body. Only the bottom portion of the cross is visible on the left, and Christ’s head is in partial shadow. The figures that carry him and the hand that reaches up from the darkness to support his head are depicted in bright light.

Descent from the Cross by Torchlight, Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam), Etching and drypoint; first of four states

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