Christ is being taken down from the cross, a scene played out against a broad landscape with mountains in the distance The scene is densely populated. In the center, a muscular young man climbs a ladder and receives the body of Christ across his shoulder. The descent is aided by a cloth sling held tightly by a man behind the cross. Another young man uses pliers to pull a large nail from Christ’s still bleeding feet. The Virgin Mary is seated on the ground to the left with St. John, beardless and with billowing blond hair, behind her. Mary Magdalene, identified by her long flowing hair, stands behind them with one of the other Three Marys who would later anoint Christ’s tomb (Mark 16). Thus, we see the projected meaning of the unguent jar that the second woman carries. To the right are the older men, as described in the Gospel of John (19:38-42). Coming first, with the unguent jar, is Joseph of Arimathea, who offered his own tomb to receive Christ’s body. Behind him is Nicodemus, a prominent member of the Jewish community who had earlier visited Christ in the secrecy of night (John 3: 1-21). The scene is evening, distinguished by the russet tone of the sky. In the distance is the city of Jerusalem. In the middle ground, two men to the left of the cross, appear in conversation, possibly a reference to the followers who would see the resurrected Christ on the Road to Emmaus. The Emperor Henry II is on the left and St. Barbara is on the right. An inscription panel supported by angels holding the instruments of the Passion culminates the arch. Below, a coat of arms sits in the center of the dedicatory inscription flanked by angels holding victory wreaths.

The panel is almost completely intact with several minor exceptions. Replacements include a triangular segment of the midsection of Christ, which contains the assistant’s left arm and the central section of the upper inscription. Several small unpainted red segments have been inserted to make up for losses in St. Henry’s robe near his sword hand. Stopgaps, presumably from another panel in the same series, appear on the border edges to the left and right of the two lower angels. Repair leads sometimes mar the legibility of the panel, as on the face of Christ.

Heinrich Fleckenstein was Schultheiss of Lucerne and died in 1589. Living off a substantial inheritance, he was occupied with various government offices as well as financial investments and real estate. Fleckenstein exercised considerable influence as a spokesperson for Spain in Lucerne (Lischer, 2005). He may have arranged to fund the window before his death.

The story is richly elaborated but the central image relies on Albrecht Dürer’s Small Passion of 1509–1511. The deeply moving image of Christ’s lifeless body gently descending on a sash and falling limply on the shoulders of his follower achieved immediate success among the artistic community. Around 1520–25, a Descent from the Cross replicating the image was produced in the Lowlands, probably for the Carthusian cloister at Louvain (Metropolitan Museum of Art 44.114.6; Hayward, 1985, pp. 145–47; Raguin 1998, p. 52). The printmaker Thielman Kerver of Paris replicated, in reverse, the central image in a Book of Hours of 1533 (Boston Public Library Rare Books Collection, XG.389 A.337; Raguin, 1987, p. 35, no. 4; Raguin, 1998, fig. I.15).

Given the theological density of the program at Rathausen, the two men to the left of the cross in the middle ground, may reference the disciples who encountered the resurrected Christ on the Road to Emmaus, a panel that will follow on the North Wing, in opening 58. As in all of the Rathausen panels, saints frame the sides, in male/female ordinance. On the left, Henry, the name saint of the donor Heinrich Fleckenstein is recognized by the image of Bamberg cathedral he carries (Herder Lexikon, 1968–76, 6, cols. 478–82). Fleckenstein identifies himself as a military officer. This and the absence of his wife in this panel would argue that his choice of Barbara, on the right, would refer to her position as protecting those who worked with explosives.

Fallenter’s composition for the Descent is repeated in a panel produced by Jacob Wegmann in 1621 for the cloister of the Franciscan convent of St. Ann on the Bruch, Lucerne, since 1904 in the convent’s new location on the Gerlisberg, Lucerne (Lehmann, 1942, fig. 232; Glauser, 1987). Wegmann did many of the windows for the Franciscan convent of St. Ann. His work comes almost thirty years later and clearly shows a different style of execution. The central image of the deposition is substantially the same, even down to the two angels at the top holding the pillar of the Flagellation and the ladder used to lift Christ’s body down from the cross. The lower portion and the areas at the sides reserved for the patron saints are completely different. The saints command much less space and stand over the donors’ shields. Fallenter produced another image of the Deposition in about 1600 using a less complex model. Made for the chapel of the monastery Lichenthal bei Baden-Baden, the panel simply shows the group of Holy Women conversing with St. John, and just above them, three men lowering Christ from the Cross (Lehmann, 1941, fig. 214).

Cited in:
Garland sale, 1924, no. 336, illustration showing the window in its original casement.
Hayward, 1989, p.73.
Raguin, 2024, vol. 1, pp. 24–26, 165–70, 173–75.