From the museum: “ This panel is by the Master of the Osservanza, named after a large altarpiece in the church of the Osservanza outside of Siena. It belongs to the predella, or lower register, of a similar altarpiece that presents episodes from the Passion of Christ. Although the altarpiece from which it comes was dismantled and is now difficult to reconstruct accurately, all five scenes from its predella survive. They form one of the artist’s most important narrative cycles and are among the most remarkable Sienese paintings of the fifteenth century.
Predellas devoted to the Passion were not uncommon, but the depiction of the Descent into Limbo is unusual and may relate to a Sienese literary source. In La resurrezione (The Resurrection), a fourteenth-century poem by Niccolò Cicerchia, Christ storms through hell, helping the three patriarchs — Adam, Abel, and Noah — to escape. Here they may be the older men being drawn to the luminous glow of the resurrected Christ.”
The phrase in the Apostles Creed, “He descended into Hell,” is based on a few cryptic verses in the New Testament. The apocryphal Book of Nicodemus went into great detail with a story of Christ as conquering king breaking upon the gates of Hell and rescuing the Righteous dead. This book was not accepted into Canon, but the story captured the popular imagination, inspiring works by several Renaissance and Medieval artists.
By The Master of the Osservanza, The Descent into Limbo, c. 1445, tempera and gold on wood, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum. More info in ALT. #arthistory. #painting #easter
