Full title | The Deposition |
---|---|
Artist | Ugolino di Nerio |
Artist dates | documented 1317-27; died possibly 1329 |
Series | The Santa Croce Altarpiece |
Date made | possibly 1325-8 |
Medium and support | Egg tempera on poplar |
Dimensions | 40.7 x 58.6 cm |
Acquisition credit | Presented by Henry Wagner, 1918 |
Inventory number | NG3375 |
Location | Room 52 |
Art route(s) | A |
Collection | Main Collection |
This panel comes from the altarpiece Ugolino made for the church of Santa Croce in Florence – it was in the predella (’step', the lowest part of an altarpiece). Three other panels from this predella are in the National Gallery’s collection.
The dead Christ is being removed from the Cross. One man removes the nails from Christ’s feet; blood from his wounds has pooled on the ground below. He may be Nicodemus, who is mentioned in John’s Gospel as having come to the Cross with spices to anoint Christ’s body.
The man on the ladder is probably Joseph of Arimathea, who removed Christ from the Cross, according to Luke’s Gospel. Christ’s limp body is caught by his mother, the Virgin Mary, who embraces him, placing her face against his. Mary Magdalene caresses Christ’s hand, pressing it against her cheek. Saint John the Evangelist is equally mournful, clutching the body closely.
This panel comes from the predella of Ugolino’s altarpiece for the church of Santa Croce in Florence. The predella ran along the bottom of the entire altarpiece and was, as was usual, originally painted on one horizontal panel. It was then cut into individual scenes. There are three others in our collection: The Betrayal of Christ, The Way to Calvary and The Resurrection.
The dead Christ is being removed from the Cross, and Saint John the Evangelist clutches him mournfully. One man pulls the nails from his feet; blood from his wounds has pooled on the ground below. This may be Nicodemus, a Pharisee who is mentioned in the Gospel of John as having come to the Cross with spices to anoint Christ’s body. Joseph, a man from the town of Arimathea, appears in both Luke’s and John’s Gospels; according to Luke, he removed the body from the Cross alone. It is likely, then, that the man on the ladder is Joseph of Arimathea.
Christ’s limp body collapses as he is gradually freed from the Cross, and he is caught by his mother, the Virgin Mary. She embraces him, placing her face against his in a tender gesture that reminds the viewer of their relationship. The Virgin is accompanied by three other women. Mary Magdalene caresses Christ’s hand, pressing it against her cheek. A woman in green behind is only barely visible. Technical analysis has shown that her head – which can be seen between the haloes of Mary Magdalene and Christ – is painted over the gilded background. This implies that she was added at a late stage of the painting process, over the gilding: usually the artist would reserve a space for the painted figures so as not to waste precious gold leaf. The place where Jesus was crucified was known as Golgotha (‘the place of the skull’). The absence of trees and the arid, craggy rocks seem a fitting landscape for a place with such a bleak name.
Here, and in the other predella panels, Ugolino used panels from an altarpiece known as the Maestà, made by his Sienese predecessor Duccio, as a model for the composition – though he includes fewer figures. Here he has omitted two of the women who appear in Duccio’s depiction of this subject.
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The Santa Croce Altarpiece
These panels were once part of a large altarpiece which adorned the high altar of the church of Santa Croce in Florence. It focused on the Passion of Christ (his torture and crucifixion) and the Resurrection – an appropriate theme, as the church was dedicated to the Holy Cross.
Drawings made in the late eighteenth century show how it was arranged originally. There were four tiers of images: the main tier had a central image of the Virgin and Child flanked by images of the saints within arches, which were decorated with angels (there are two sets of these in the National Gallery’s collection).
Above was a row of saints framed in pairs; we hold two pairs. The uppermost tier consisted of six pinnacle panels, three on either side of a central image which probably showed the Crucifixion, itself topped by an image of Christ making a blessing gesture. The predella (the lowest layer) consisted of seven scenes showing Christ’s suffering and death; we have four of these.
These panels were once part of a large altarpiece made by the Sienese painter Ugolino di Nerio for the high altar of the Franciscan church of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1566 it was removed and replaced with a Crucifix. The altarpiece focuses on the Passion of Christ (his torture and crucifixion) and the Resurrection – an appropriate theme, as the church was dedicated to the Holy Cross. The imagery of the altarpiece was a suitable backdrop to the church’s annual procession of a relic of the Cross.
Although the altarpiece was later dismantled and its panels are now in collections around the world, we have a good idea of how it looked originally. Drawings made in the late eighteenth century show the altarpiece when it was in the friary connected to the church. At that time, Ugolino’s signature was noted on the altarpiece’s frame. Technical analysis of the panels, carried out at the National Gallery, revealed where the panels were connected to each other, and proves the drawing must be an accurate representation of their original arrangement.
The main tier followed the conventional pattern for altarpieces in fourteenth-century Italy, with an image of the Virgin and Child placed centrally and flanked by images of saints (in this case, three on either side painted within pointed arches). The panel with the Virgin and Child does not survive, but three of the panels with saints are now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Angels were painted in the spandrels of each panel, and those once above Saint Louis of Toulouse and those once above Saint Francis are in our collection.
Above this main tier of images was another row of saints, smaller in scale and framed in six sets of pairs; Saints Bartholomew and Andrew and Saints Simon and Thaddeus are in our collection. The uppermost tier consisted of six pinnacle panels, three on either side of a central image which probably showed the Crucifixion, itself topped by a Blessing Redeemer (Christ making a blessing gesture). Three of the pinnacle panels – Isaiah, Moses and King David – are in our collection.
The lowest layer sat beneath the main tier: the predella. It was originally painted on one continuous piece of horizontal wood, but was later cut into seven individual scenes, all of which survive. We have four – The Betrayal of Christ, The Way to Calvary, The Deposition and The Resurrection – and three are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
There is no known dated painting by Ugolino. The altarpiece was probably commissioned by four brothers belonging to the Alamanni family; letters written to their descendants in the sixteenth century seem to refer to their coats of arms on the altarpiece, and the family seem to have had rights over the church’s high altar. It is likely to have been in position by 1326, the year that commemorated one hundred years since Saint Francis’s death, or 1328, the centenary of his canonisation.
There are differences in the quality of the painting between the predella panels in particular, which suggests the involvement of more than one artist. Indeed it was not unusual for a workshop of artists to collaborate on a work of this scale. Ugolino may have used his family workshop to complete this commission.










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