The Descent from the Cross

This approach has become more sophisticated in the present work, in which the artist locates a series of outlined buildings in the middle-ground, applying golden highlights with the tip of the brush, and in this respect Melgar’s activities as a polychromer should be borne in mind. He was entrusted with the gilding and estofado of the principal altarpiece for the cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, made by Damián Forment. This commission helps to explain the careful depiction of the ornamental motifs on the clothes of some of the figures in the present Descent from the Cross, for example the two exquisite lengths of cloth used to support Christ’s body, as well as the gold border on Joseph of Arimathea’s green tunic, which has grotesque decoration with curious, axially-aligned and facing hybrid creatures. This motif is painted in a similar manner to the polychromy for the altarpiece in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, on which Melgar was working in the 1550s; his last documented work and the period to which the present panel should also be assigned…