1580
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Dead Christ with Angels is a 1580 unspecified by Leandro Bassano, a Mannerism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see Christ’s pale body lying on a stone slab, two angels hovering above him with sad faces and folded hands. This painting feels quieter than most scenes of the dead Christ. The angels don’t wail or gesture wildly—they just stand close, like friends keeping watch. Leandro Bassano painted it in Venice, where light and shadow were used to make figures look almost alive. Look up *chiaroscuro* to see how artists like Bassano used deep shadows and bright highlights to shape their scenes.
In this scene, two angels are shown attending to the body of Christ after his death. The artist, Leandro Bassano, came from a family of painters—both his father and grandfather were artists, as were his brothers, Francesco and Gerolamo. Leandro worked primarily in Francesco's studio in Venice, which he took over after his brother's death in 1592. Leandro is best known as a portrait painter, working in a style often compared with that of the great Venetian artist, Tintoretto. Other versions of this painting are in the collections of the Galleria Colonna in Rome and the Civic Museum in Bassano…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Leandro Bassano (10 June 1557 – 15 April 1622), also called Leandro dal Ponte, was an Italian Renaissance painter from Bassano del Grappa who was awarded a knighthood by the Doge of Venice.
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