Descent from the Cross by Torchlight

Descent from the Cross by Torchlight

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Descent from the Cross by TorchlightDescent from the Cross by TorchlightDescent from the Cross by TorchlightDescent from the Cross by TorchlightDescent from the Cross by Torchlight

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.