The background is golden, dimmed, yellow and russet, people motionless in sorrow; motionless faces, motionless hands, motionless bows of the bodies.
They are not moving as they are combined with each other.
They are combined by the man they are keeping in their arms.
The white body across the whole painting.
The outlines of these figures are like lines of fiddle-sticks, the fingers like wistful sounds of a violoncello – huge and deep.
The ovals of the faces – as if they were precious stones set in rings. Maria's tiny face has huge, beautiful, closed eyelids. The mouth is tightened with pain. Those up the cross have curly hair. The body must be somehow taken down so they are bustling on the ladder.
However ,they have also been touched by this motionless sorrow, wistful and prolonged, like the sounds of a violin. |
|
It is good that they are standing here. They are standing one next to another, evenly placed. The gathers of their robes – long and trailing – corrugated the painting like a colourful autumn forest behind which the russet sun is setting
and it is leaving a golden glow behind.
It is good that they remained motionless like that – later, after many centuries, it will be useful for a certain Flemish painter, who will base on them the rhythm of his own picture.
And it is also good that they came so late in the afternoon – this painter will change this sunset into dimmed yellow
and rusty gold in his picture. |
