The Deposition
The deposition is a moment in the Passion of Christ when Christ is taken down from the cross before his entombment. This scene is re-enacted in deposition rituals, often using a sculpture of Christ with moveable joints. This ritual originated in Europe, likely during the 11th century, and the use of hinged sculptures was popularized in Northern, Central, and Southern Europe during the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
In Southern Italy, confraternities continue to organize and perform deposition rituals on Good Friday during Holy Week. They are performed in the evening near the high altars of churches. Rituals vary by region, though many use hinged sculptures and involve similar practices.
“Two of the ordained brothers carry the cross […] The cross is put away upon a covered bed in the floor, censed, concealed with linens, and a candle is placed which perpetual burns through the night when all others have been extinguished.”
— 12th century document describing a deposition ritual in a Benedictine monastery in Rhineau (in Jung, p. 58)
April 20, 2019 (Video: Ornews)
Hinged Crucifixes in Ritual
Early deposition rituals involved burying the Host or a cross to represent the Passion and Death of Christ. The use of effigies with hinges developed out of these ritual practices around the 13th century as a way of visualizing the deposition and entombment in a clearer, less symbolic manner.
Deposition rituals with hinged crucifixes often begin with two confraternity members climbing ladders on either side of the crucifix and placing a white cloth under Christ’s armpits and over the crossbar of the cross.
The men remove the instruments of the Passion – the crown of thorns and nails – one by one and present them to the audience, then to the statue of Mary. Once the two men remove all the instruments, they lower Christ’s arms to his sides and lower his body using the white cloth. Other confraternity members standing below receive the sculpted body and carry it, giving a visual sense of the weight of the figure. The men holding Christ place the body on a bier, which they then carry on procession and bury in a replica of the Holy Sepulchre.
Deposition rituals do not follow set practices. Each region has different practices, though rituals share common elements mentioned above. The hinged sculptures also vary; they are executed with variations in material, number of articulations, and level of realism.
Ritual and Devotion
Hinged crucifixes encourage meditation on the suffering of Christ when enacting deposition scenes. The realism and movement of these crucifixes remind the viewer that Christ suffered and died for the sins of humanity.
Crucifixes also emphasize the importance of touch in devotional practice. In many deposition rituals, devotees come in close contact with the sculpture of Christ; the body, especially the feet, are kissed and touched. The realism of the painted flesh of Christ is striking when observed up close. Painted veins, bruises, and blood emphasize Christ’s pain and mortality as devotees engage with the sculpture.
Hymns expressing mourning, known as lamentations, are often sung during deposition rituals. This practice dates back to the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Lamentations, in tandem with the realistic sculpture of Christ, are meant to elicit a strong emotional response from devotees, as they imagine the sculpture to be the dead body of Christ being buried.
(Photo: Una D’Elia)
“Alas, alas, Lord. Alas, alas, our Savior, we have become orphans, without a father; our mothers widows.
The crown has fallen from our head. Woe are we because we have sinned.”
14th century lament from Liber Processionalis in Padua, translated by Donald La Salle (In La Salle, 160)
Crucifix at the Oratorio della Confraternita di Santa Croce
The Oratorio della Confraternita di Santa Croce crucifix is a sculpture with hinged shoulders that was used, until recently, for deposition rituals in Orosei, Italy. The hinges are covered in leather, concealing the mechanisms. The body of Christ is intricately sculpted and painted, with bruises, veins, and wounds covering his body. When laid on the bier, the sculpture recalls a dead body; one can imagine the sculpted surface to be the cold skin of a recently deceased Christ.
“Nothing can be more lugubrious, or more disagreeable to behold than this crucified phantom, with its ghastly life-like look and its death-like stillness.”
— Théophile Gautier on the Christ of Burgos crucifix, 1853 (in Wanderings in Spain, p. 41)
Crucifixes and Idolatry
Despite the continued practice of deposition rituals, their popularity declined in some areas of Europe following the Protestant Reformation. Reformers criticized movable crucifixes as being idolatrous and rooted in pagan worship. The devotion to sculptures was considered problematic. As a result, many crucifixes were destroyed, especially in regions that became predominantly Protestant.
The detail on the painted flesh, the weight of the body descending from the cross, and the power of touch and sound during rituals that have endured through the centuries are a testament to the importance of these practices. Although some aspects have evolved, the core purpose and practices of the ritual have continued, even in the wake of controversy and attempted destruction. The sensory experience and realism of hinged crucifixes make them potent devotional objects, still revered today.
Ilinca Stingaciu, Queen’s University
Selected bibliography: Peter Burke, “The Repudiation of Ritual,” in The Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy, 223–38 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Elizabeth Parker, “The Descent from the Cross: Its Relation to the Extra-Liturgical Depositio Drama.” Ph.D. diss. (New York: New York University, 1975); John Harper, “Holy Week and Easter,” in The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, (139–152 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991): 139-152; Donald La Salle, “Liturgical and Popular Lament: A Study of the Role of Lament in Liturgical and Popular Religious Practices of Good Friday in Northern Italy from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries,” Ph.D. diss. (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1997); Tanya A. Jung, “The Phenomenal Lives of Movable Christ Sculptures.” Ph.D. diss. (Maryland: University of Maryland. 2006); Kamil Kopania, Animated Sculptures of the Crucified Christ in the Religious Culture of the Latin Middle Ages (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Neriton, 2010); Elina Gertsman, “Introduction: Bewilderment Overwhelms Me.” Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 4, no. 1 (2015): 1–12, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/preternature.4.1.0001; Théophile Gautier, Wanderings in Spain, translated by Thomas Robert McQuoid (Project Gutenberg, 2016), www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/52763/pg52763-images.html; Geraldine A. Johnson, “Embodying Devotion: Multisensory Encounters with Donatello’s Crucifix in S. Croce,” Renaissance quarterly 73, no. 4 (2020): 1179–1234.
Performing Devotion: The Ritual Uses of Sculpture from the Italian Renaissance to Today 
