Like its companion volumes, Descent presents an extended meditation on a single theme that has many facets: the universal human tragedy of loss, grief and the shattering of all hope; the promise, as yet unknown to the participants, of renewed hope and eternal life. This complex web of emotions has inspired a rich heritage of interpretation, and the images presented here form a deeply moving and ever-changing study of grief and resignation, of human and divine drama, of individual physiognomy and character, of ultimate hope and salvation.
The concentration on a single theme opens up an intense and deepened awareness of the richness of human emotion and the expressive resources of the artist. Each image reveals a new insight, and the profoundest mysteries of religion, human experience and artistic creation are explored here in a concentrated form.
