The Descent from the Cross (1773): Art, History and Details

The Descent from the Cross (1773) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre (French, 1713–1789); Gilles Demarteau (French, 1722–1776).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Gilles Demarteau was the first artist to master crayon-manner etching—the process seen here—which replicates the appearance of a red-chalk drawing. Rather than sketching with an etching needle, Demarteau used a tool called a roulette (a small, toothed wheel) to create tiny, regular dots that were then etched into the printing plate. The text along the lower margin of the image indicates that Demarteau’s print of the dramatic removal of Christ’s body from the cross reproduces a drawing by the well-known court painter to King Louis XV, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre. With prints like this, Demarteau took advantage of the popularity of chalk drawings in the 1700s, selling his prints to members of a growing middle class who were interested in acquiring the trappings of wealth.

Object facts

• Title: The Descent from the Cross
• Date: 1773
• Creator attribution: Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre (French, 1713–1789); Gilles Demarteau (French, 1722–1776)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: crayon manner etching
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1964.25

Collection credit

In honor of Leona E. Prasse through The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.