Polyptych of the Passion - Deposition of Christ

Five large canvases depict the stories from the Passion of Christ: Agony in the Garden, Crowning of Thorns, Flagellation, Christ Carrying the Cross, Descent from the Cross, the latter dated 1517. As affirmed by the 16th century art historian Giorgio Vasari, the figure of Nicodemus, the man next to the cross with a red beard and wearing a turban, is a self-portrait. The city of Verona with the Visconti castle of San Pietro appears in the background. The group of canvases constituted part of a monumental iconostasis in the Avanzi chapel in San Bernardino, of which the Crucifixion by Francesco Morone in 1498 was the first work executed, followed by these and others by Gianfrancesco Caroto and Nicola Giolfino and concluding in 1546 with paintings by Antonio Badile and Paolo Veronese. The predella of this group consisted of four panels with saints Joseph, John the Baptist, Bonaventure and beatified Bernardino of Feltre that, according to Vasari, are portraits of acquaintances of Morando.