The Descent from the Cross
Unknown · c. 1270-1280
Carved in Paris around twelve seventy to twelve eighty, the group shows Joseph of Arimathea lowering the dead Christ from the cross, the heavy body sagging against him in a curve that follows the shape of the tusk. The Virgin takes her son's hand and presses it to her face in one of the most moving gestures in Gothic sculpture. The personifications of the Church and the Synagogue stand at the sides, and a prophet with a scroll completes the ensemble. Gilding and traces of paint survive. Each figure was carved separately, which gives the scene a theatrical depth rare in ivory.
The group's arrival at the Louvre reads like a serial novel. In eighteen ninety six the Paris expert Charles Mannheim, who had bought the pieces in Italy, sold the museum the Virgin, the group of Joseph with Christ, and the figure of the Church. Fifty one years later, in nineteen forty seven, the children of Baron and Baroness Robert de Rothschild gave a prophet in memory of their parents, and the curator Pierre Verlet recognised in it the hand of the same Parisian ivory carver. New figures have rejoined the ensemble since, roughly every fifty years.
Did You Know? The figures of this one scene entered the Louvre piece by piece, at intervals of about half a century.
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