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The Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
The Descent from the Cross, printed and hung in a room
In a room · Velvet sectional, warm beige wall · printed at 40×60 inRoom photograph: Max Vakhtbovych, Pexels Licence
Descent from the Cross

The Descent from the Cross

c. 1435 · Oil on panel · Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

For Good Friday

Sizes

image 23.2×18 in on a 24×18 in sheet

What is dpi?

Dots per inch: how many pixels of the museum’s file go into each inch of paper. Our floor is 240 for sheets up to 20 inches, 180 up to 36 inches and 120 beyond, because a larger print is seen from further away. We never offer a sheet below the floor, and the number on each size is the one you receive.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm cotton rag · pigment inks · printed to order

Printed to order · the whole painting, never cropped · if it arrives damaged, we replace it

Free shipping, included in the price, to all eight countries we ship to. Dispatched in 2–4 working days — nothing to send back if it arrives damaged.

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About this painting

Two bodies make the same curve: Christ's, lowered from the Cross, and His Mother's, fallen in a faint below Him. Stephan Kemperdick reads her posture, mirroring the dead Christ's, as naming her Co-Redemptrix. Rogier van der Weyden pressed almost life-size figures into a shallow gilded box, so that, as the Prado says, they read as painted sculpture, a painted shrine that rivals the carved ones. Joseph of Arimathea stands in cloth of gold. A skull and a bone lie in the grass for Adam, over whose grave, by legend, Christ was crucified. The crossbowmen of Leuven commissioned it for their chapel, and the Prado finds them twice: small crossbows hang in the corner tracery, and Christ's outstretched arms take the same shape. Their weapon hangs in the corners. In the middle it is His body.

Sources: Museo Nacional del Prado, catalogue entry, inv. P002825 · Museo Nacional del Prado, 'Easy-to-read' artwork page · Stephan Kemperdick (Curator, Gemaldegalerie Berlin), CODART Canon · Smarthistory, 'Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition' · Museo Nacional del Prado, Voice resource

And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews), besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave leave. He came therefore and took away the body of Jesus.

John 19:38 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

Pray with this every day  ›
The Record
Date c. 1435
Collection Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Subject Descent from the Cross
Season Lent, Holy Week
Master 30,000 px
License PD/CC0
Attribution Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid · P002825

The original, as its museum records it

Artist Rogier van der Weyden
Medium Oil on panel
Dimensions Height: 204.5 cm; Width: 259 cm
Holding Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid · P002825

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source El Descendimiento, by Rogier van der Weyden, from Prado in Google Earth.jpg
Master 30,000 px on the long edge
Rights PD/CC0 — the photograph as well as the painting
At a glance
ArtistRogier van der Weyden (Early Netherlandish, c. 1399–1464)
Datec. 1435
MuseumMuseo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
AccessionP002825
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsHeight: 204.5 cm; Width: 259 cm
Sheet sizes18×24 in, 24×36 in, 32×48 in, 40×60 in
Provenance of the file
Held byMuseo Nacional del Prado, Madrid · P002825 the museum’s record
Source fileWikimedia Commons · El Descendimiento, by Rogier van der Weyden, from Prado in Google Earth.jpg
LicencePublic domain
Master30,000 × 23,277 px, the file our printer receives
ChainTaken from Wikimedia Commons; held as our print master.

The sheets

18×24 in sheet 24×18 in · image 23.2×18 in · archival margin · 1293 dpi
24×36 in sheet 36×24 in · image 30.9×24 in · archival margin · 970 dpi
32×48 in sheet 48×32 in · image 41.2×32 in · archival margin · 727 dpi
40×60 in sheet 60×40 in · image 51.6×40 in · archival margin · 582 dpi

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 30,000 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.