Begarelli’s Deposition

In the chapel next to the high altar, a grandiose mystical vision unfolds before us... it is the Deposition group, a terracotta work created around 1530 by the Modenese sculptor Antonio Begarelli. Begarelli was a particularly well-known artist in 16th-century Modena and more works of his adorn the nearby church of San Pietro, which we recommend visiting, if you have not already done so!But back to the Deposition... it is composed of thirteen life-size figures, organised around the three crosses erected on the summit of Golgotha. The undisputed focal point of the scene, above, is the lifeless body of Christ, lowered from the cross by four figures arranged symmetrically to form a refined visual knot. It is Nicodemus, top right, who is freeing Jesus from the final nail, while the hands of St John the Evangelist, who is perched on a ladder just below, support the Saviour's head. On the opposite side, Joseph of Arimathea appears to lift His feet. The Virgin, who has fainted, lies beneath the cross, aided by three pious women. Dissolving all boundaries of time and space, the sculptor places four saints who lived in different periods and places at the outer edges of the scene, gathered to witness the sorrowful Gospel episode. They are St John the Baptist and St Jerome on the left, and St Francis and St Anthony of Padua on the right.This place is only the last stop on the long pilgrimage of this work through the city of Modena. In fact, the sculptural group was originally commissioned for the monastery of the Observants of St. Cecilia. It was then moved to the church of Santa Margherita and later to the Academy of Fine Arts. Only in 1828 did it arrive here, at San Francesco, after Luigi Righi's restoration. In short, the work has travelled around the city over the years... like a real via crucis!.