The mature works of Il Rosso Fiorentino, who has become a leader of central Italian Mannerism, make clear his break with the classical style of the High Renaissance for the sake of an expressive, highly personal "anticlassicism,” exemplified by his famous Deposition, or Descent from the Cross, altarpiece in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Volterra (initially painted for the Duomo in 1521).

In contrast to the frozen grief of other depositions, this one appears as a hurried and complicated operation, while the figures below have simple and forceful expressions of quiet grief, with powerful expressions hinted at by hidden faces.

The sky is somber.

The three ladders and those carrying down Christ appear precarious.

Christ himself is sallow.

Contrast this frenetic, windswept scene with the equally complex, but more restrained composition on the same theme by the near contemporary Florentine Mannerist Pontormo, which he will complete in 1528.

Rosso will go on to paint a second, darker and more crowded Deposition altarpiece for the church of San Lorenzo in Sansepolcro.