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The Descent into Limbo: Roundel above Centre Panel

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Christ, holding a white banner with a red cross over his shoulder, reaches out towards a crowd of figures who are squeezed into the right-hand spandrel (the space above the curved moulding of the main panel). On the opposite spandrel three devils are crushed under the fallen doors of hell, which Christ has just trampled down. Between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus was thought to have gone down into hell and led out the souls of the righteous who had died since the beginning of the world.

The scene takes place immediately above the central panel of a large polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) which originally sat on the high altar of the church of the Camaldolese nunnery of San Giovanni Evangelista at Pratovecchio in Tuscany. Several of its panels are now in the National Gallery’s collection.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Descent into Limbo: Roundel above Centre Panel

Date

about 1420-4?

Medium

Egg tempera on wood

Measurements

H 20 x W 20 cm

Accession number

NG580.7

Acquisition method

Bought, 1857

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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