Scenes from the Passion of Christ: The Descent into Limbo [right panel]

Andrea Vanni

National Gallery of Art

A bearded man, Jesus, strides from under an archway across a wooden door that lies flat along the ground as it pins and crushes a black beast in this vertical, framed panel. A crowd of people huddle inside the rocky cave, and everyone has pale skin faintly tinged with green. Jesus wears a bright, gold-patterned cloth draped over one shoulder and around his body. He holds a tall pole with a flag with a red cross on a white field with his left hand. His other clasps hands with an elderly man with gray hair and long white beard. Behind the elder man, a crowd of men and women kneel in front of the opening of a craggy cave. One man holds a scroll with black letters that reads, “ECCE ANGIUS.” Another bearded man floats above holding a scroll that reads, “DESTRUXIT QUIDAM MORTES INFERNI ET SUBVERTIT POTENTIAS DIABOLI.” Above the scene, an architectural arch and tracery is created in low relief in gold against the gold-leaf background. The gold frame has inset bands of lapis blue with scrolling, leafy designs in gold above and below the central scene.