The Descent from the Cross (Rubens at Lille)

Rubens returns to the descent from the cross in this later altarpiece, the dead Christ lowered amid a press of grieving figures. Painted for a church and now in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, it lets the viewer compare his evolving handling of a subject he made his own - the great Antwerp Cathedral version is also in this collection. Set side by side, the two reveal how Rubens reworked the same descending rhythm of the body and the same play of pale flesh against shadow across the years of his maturity.