Voces del Prado

The Descent from the Cross, by Rogier van der Weyden

George Bisacca, Restorer, 1985-What's on

The Descent from the Cross is one of the most extraordinary paintings ever conceived. It’s a challenge to sculpture, because the picture is imitating the kind of sculptural altarpieces that you had in the north that are made in a box. This picture is imitating that, but is doing it better than the three-dimensional works.
Van der Weyden is showing his unbelievable skill in rendering these forms. He goes through so many different aspects in that picture. From the different levels of emotional grief of each of the figures, depending on how close they were to Christ: the Mary has fainted, the Saint John on the left, his eyes are red from crying, he was so close to Christ. Other figures look on and they’re sadden but it doesn’t touch them as deeply as other figures. And so, there’s a whole complex relation between all the figures there.
Even materials, and the natural world … there are just so many aspects of that picture that are miraculous. It’s just hard to believe that van der Weyden could control all that in a single work of art.