The Descent from the Cross (David Folley)
painting by David Folley
The Descent from the Cross by David Folley was commissioned by Rev. Raymond Chudley to mark his retirement in 1996 as team leader of St Andrew's Church, Wickford, Essex.
Over the centuries The Descent from the Cross, or Deposition of Christ or Descent of Christ from the Cross, has been a common subject in Christian art. Famous examples from the old masters include those by Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Jacopo Pontormo and Rogier van der Weyden whose work influenced Folley's geometric composition.
Folley's homage to Rogier van der Weyden’s masterpiece is a modern interpretation to “inspire the viewer to contemplate the historical, human and mystical elements of the crucifixion”. It was rendered by the painter in response to Rev. Raymond Chudley's request to create a work where the “viewer receives more from it the more he or she looks”.
Folley's controversial commission received a mixed response. The ecclesiastical response to the work was approval; Chudley said, “It is slightly controversial, perhaps, but so dramatic. The viewer receives more from it the more he or she looks.” In his dedication of the work, the Bishop of Bradwell, Right Reverend Laurie Green, explained to the congregation that Folley “has depicted the Descent of the Body of Christ from the Cross like the icons of old” to “meditate and reflect on the scene of utter horror”.
“The Descent from the Cross (David Folley)” enters the record as painting by David Folley. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Descent, Cross and David can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7729789. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1996.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Descent from the Cross (David Folley)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.