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Notes

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This work painted in shades of grey – a technique known as grisaille – was intended to imitate sculptural relief in an architectural setting. The figure is based on prototypes by Rubens, themselves based on a crucifixion painted in Cologne by Goltzius Geldorp who was a Flemish refugee in that city. The engraver P. Pontius made a print of the Rubens painting in 1631, probably the source of the figure in this painting. De Wit, a Dutch Catholic who specialised in grisaille, is known to have painted a similar composition in the Church of Moses and Aaron in Amsterdam dating from 1719.