Three very long ladders allow three men in skimpy robes, plus a fourth in modern clothes (perhaps a self-portrait of the painter himself), to take down the livid and lifeless body of Christ from the cross. His blood was entirely shed out of love and now it seems to have symbolically moved into John's red mantle: this is the disciple who remained under the cross until the end and collected the testimony of the water and blood that came from Jesus' side. .

In the left corner, Mary faints supported by the pious women; on the right on the ground lies the lying body of one of the robbers, while the other is carried away on the shoulder by a man of toil. In the calculation of the Jewish day, the setting of the sun begins the Sabbath and in order not to expose the bodies on the solemnity of the Passover, which is about to begin, it is necessary to give quickly burial.

The painter alludes to this by inserting the sky colored by the sunset lights in the background and allowing a glimpse of the door of the sepulcher.