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Tournier was the only French painter to employ a dramatic force equal to that of Caravaggio. Most of his pictures are not in good condition and are often difficult to judge, but it is possible to see that he favoured simple pyramidal compositions with dramatic lighting which seem, surprisingly enough, to be inspired by Caravaggio's last compositions painted in Sicily, which Tournier can hardly have known in Rome. The Deposition from the Cross and the Entombment (both in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse) lack the inhibitions and decorative preoccupations found in almost all other Caravaggesque painters, except those by Valentin. Tournier's stature can be judged by these two intense paintings alone.
The painting was executed for the chapel of the Pénitents Noirs in Toulouse.
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