MACHUCA, Pedro
(b. 1490/95, Toledo, d. 1550, Granada)

Descent from the Cross (with original frame)

1547
Panel, 141 x 128 cm (incl. frame)
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Machuca was an extraordinary artist, an architect, sculptor and painter. He built the palace of Charles V in Granada, a work of exceptional quality, one of the very few existing Renaissance buildings with a circular court. His training as an architect is evident in the design of the original ornamented frame of this painting with plenty of decorative elements typical of the architecture of first Spanish Renaissance or Plateresque style. It is indicated on this frame that the altarpiece was ordered by Doña Inés de Castillo, and it was finished in 1547.