Deposition

Two men bend under the weight of Christ's body. One supports his upper body while the other grips his legs. Below them, the edge of a stone projects towards you. Caravaggio draws the group close to that edge, with the mourners rising behind it. Follow their heads up to the woman lifting both arms. The men are John and Nicodemus. Mary, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleophas mourn with them. The painting represents the handling of Jesus's body after his crucifixion. The stone connects the scene with the preparation of the body and the tomb. Hands, bent knees and hanging limbs make that work of carrying easy to follow. Caravaggio, whose name was Michelangelo Merisi, painted the Deposition around 1600–1604 for the Vittrice family chapel in Rome's Chiesa Nuova. It once stood at a church altar. French forces took it to Paris in 1797. After its return in 1817, it joined Pope Pius VII's painting collection. The group still presses towards the place where a person would have stood before that altar.