A pictorial set rediscovered in 1915 in the Church of Santo da Serra, in Madeira Island, later acquired by Américo Olavo and restored in Lisbon by Luciano Freire. Later, it was sold to the antique dealer Adolphe Weiss, of Vienna, Austria, and worked on again. It was acquired by the Portuguese State in 1954, and then exhibited at the National Museum of Ancient Art, from whence it was moved to the Museum of Sacred Art of Funchal.
Its probable origin was the Franciscan convent of Our Lady of Piety in Santa Cruz, which no longer exists. Instituted by provisions in the will of Urbano Lomelino, living in Madeira since 1470, it was built by his nephew Jorge Lomelina, around 1527, in dimensions that were much greater that those initially planned. Therefore, the donors represented must be Jorge Lomelino and Maria Adão. The Descent from the cross is shown, as the body of the Saviour is being released from the Cross. Nicodemos uses pincers to release the right arm of Christ, while Joseph of Arimathea holds the body and John His legs. Mary, His mother, stands and awaits the body to be taken down, while Mary Magdalene, worships the Lord with clasped hands. The background is a fantasized vision of Jerusalem, transfigured into a Flemish city of the late Middle Ages. On one wing, Maria Adão, kneeling, is presented by St. James the Greater, identified by his staff and pilgrim's hat. On the reverse side, in greyish silver, St. James the Lesser, in episcopal robes, with a wool carder's comb as his attribute. On the opposing wing, Jorge Lomelino is presented by St. Bernardino de Sienna, identified by the trigram IHS, the symbol of the name of Jesus. On the reverse, in greyish silver, Saint Lucia.
It was attributed by Max Friedlander to Gerard David¹, and the authorship was later confirmed by others.
Gérard David was born between 1450-60 in Oudewater in present-day Holland and registered as a master painter in Bruges in 1484. In 1515 he joined the guild in Antwerp. He died in Bruges in 1523. The artist reassumes a Flemish tradition of Jean van Eyck of the 1400s, making the space, and especially the horizon, a experience that is common to the faithful observers and to the very personages represented, as is the case of other works attributed to Gérard David, such as the Sedano Triptych in the Louvre Museum, or the Triptych of the Baptism of Christ in the Groninger Museum of Bruges. Note further the similarity of the face of the Virgin to the Pietá of the Hermitage Museum.
We can stated that the work belongs to the last cycle of the artist, commissioned after 1518. As Gérard David died in 1523, the work must have been finished by his followers.

¹ Arte Flamenga, Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal, Luiza Clode e Fernando António Baptista Pereira, EDICARTE, 1997, p. 44.