The Lowering of the Cross with Sts Mary Magdalene, Augustine, Jerome and Angels

Procaccini was one of the leading painters active in Lombardy in the early-17th century. He was based in Milan, but also worked in Genoa where the wealthy banker Gian Carlo Doria was an enthusiatisc patron. This altarpiece was painted for Doria. The painting is not a narrative. Rather the dead body of Christ on the cross – the Corpus Christi – is offered as an object for devotion in relation to the sacrament of Eucharist which would have taken place at the altar below.