The Descent from the Cross

This altarpiece was painted around 1665 for the main altar of a Venetian church, Santa Maria del Pianto. Luca Giordano was a Neapolitan, and he carried north the deep shadow of Naples, the heavy chiaroscuro that painters there had taken from Caravaggio. In Venice he set it against something local, the warm colour and loose, moving brushwork of the old Venetian masters, Titian above all. The result is a crowded, dim scene of the body of Christ lowered from the cross, with Mary, Saint John and Mary Magdalene grieving in the front. For a long time dust and yellowed varnish had darkened it almost to a blur, until a recent cleaning brought the colour back.