The Descent from the Cross -a painted arch

The composition of this picture derives from Daniele da Volterra's famous Deposition in the Church of the Trinità dei Monti, Rome and from the altarpiece of the same subject by Federico Barocci (1526-1612) in the Cathedral of Perugia. In the present picture, the artist has altered the figures of the Virgin and Saint Mary Magdalen. The latter repeats in reverse that in The Entombment of Christ by Federico Barocci and may have been taken from the print by Aegidius Sadeler II (The Illustrated Bartsch, 72, no. 057).