Deposition from the Cross

The printmaker Johann Gottlieb Prestel, who settled in Frankfurt, specialized in aquatint reproductions of celebrated drawings by the great masters. Aquatint had just been invented in the mid-eighteenth century and had the virtue of rendering subtle tonal effects. This aquatint by Prestel shows a different artists’ versions of the Deposition, the moment from Christ’s Passion when his body is removed from the cross after the Crucifixion. The reproduction was made for the Praun’sche Kabinett, a print album named after the Nuremberg merchant and art collector Paulus Praun (1548–1616), who traveled frequently to Italy. The circulation of reproductive prints such as Prestel’s ensured that famous works by Raphael, Daniele da Volterra, and other Italian artists would become even better known in northern Europe.