Vatican Museums

Inside the Chapel of Peace, Manzù inserted two pairs of works, realized in glass and gold leaf, one dedicated to the Annunciation and the other to the Deposition. In Christ deposed, alongside John the Evangelist who supports Mary, he returns to a theme he considered several times during his career: in the 1940s, in the famous series Christ in our humanity, the subject of scandal and great polemic on account of the irreverent tone with which he had treated the subject; and in 1950, when he produced four stations of the Via Crucis for the Church of St. Eugene, including the Deposition.
In this splendid version, from 1961, the figure of Christ stands alone, supported by a rope and contained in a limited space that excludes other presences. The face and the gestures of the body do not reveal the signs of pain, but suggest instead the attainment of a state of profound serenity.