Volterra (Italian pronunciation: [volˈtɛrra]; Latin: Volaterrae) is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods.
Christ in Glory with Four Saints and a Donor is a c.1492 tempera on panel painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his studio.
It was commissioned by Giusto Bonvicini, abbot of the Camaldolese Santi Giusto e Clemente Abbey in Volterra - the two standing saints may be saints Giovanni Gualberto and Saint Romuald, linked to the Camaldolese Congregation. It was painted in Ghirlandaio's studio in Florence (only details and the original composition are thought to be by the master) and taken to Volterra, where it is now in the town's Pinacoteca e museo civico di Volterra.
The Descent from the Cross (Greek: Ἀποκαθήλωσις, Apokathelosis), or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion (John 19, John 19:38–42). In Byzantine art the topic became popular in the 9th century, and in the West from the 10th century. The Descent from the Cross is the 13th Station of the Cross, and is also the sixth of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Other figures not mentioned in the Gospels who are often included in depictions of this subject include John the Evangelist, who is sometimes depicted supporting a fainting Mary (as in the work below by Rogier van der Weyden), and Mary Magdalene. The Gospels mention an undefined number of women as watching the crucifixion, including The Three Marys, (Mary Salome being mentioned in Mark 15 (Mark 15:40)), and also that the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene saw the burial (Mark 15:47). These and further women and unnamed male helpers are often shown.
The Pinacoteca e Museo Civico di Volterra (Picture Gallery and Civic Museum of Volterra) is located in the Palazzo Minucci-Solaini on via de' Sarti #1 in the town of Volterra, province of Pisa, region of Tuscany, Italy.
Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus (c. 337 BC – 270 BC) was one of the two elected Roman consuls in 298 BC. He led the Roman army to victory against the Etruscans near Volterra. A member of the noble Roman family of Scipiones, he was the father of Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina and great-grandfather of Scipio Africanus.
Andrea dal Monte Sansovino or Andrea Contucci del Monte San Savino (c. 1467 – 1529) was an Italian sculptor active during the High Renaissance. His pupils include Jacopo Sansovino (no relation).