Why is Mary Falling? We analyse van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross masterpiece.

Why is Mary falling in Rogier van der Weyden's The Descent from the Cross? At first, the answer seems simple: she is overcome with grief. But Rogier does something more powerful. He makes the Virgin Mary's collapsing body echo the body of Christ as he is lowered from the cross. This close reading looks at The Descent from the Cross, painted before 1443, and explores how Rogier turns grief into the structure of the whole image: the falling bodies, the crowded golden shrine-like space, the hands gripping the shroud, the different kinds of mourning, and the small crossbows that point to the painting's original audience in Leuven. Chapters: 00:00 - Why is Mary falling? 00:33 - The Descent from the Cross 00:49 - A shallow golden box 00:58 - Look at the hands 01:47 - Mary's fall 02:28 - The chapel clue 02:44 - Why the fall matters 03:00 - Built out of grief Artwork: Rogier van der Weyden, The Descent from the Cross, before 1443, oil on panel, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, P002825. Permanent loan from Patrimonio Nacional. Source: Museo Nacional del Prado object record: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-c... Created for TheHistoryOfArt. #ArtHistory #RogierVanDerWeyden #TheDescentFromTheCross