The Descent from the Cross is a oil on wood painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), created in c. 1612. Measuring 421 × 311 cm, it depicts the biblical scene from Mark 15:42-47.
When evening had now come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent council member who also himself was looking for God’s Kingdom, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.
Pilate marveled if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead long.
When he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
He bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid.