The panel presents a depiction of Christus Patiens emerging from his tomb, flanked on the left and right by the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist. Christ appears in the middle of the composition, his arms crossed, and his head tilted to his right. He is dressed solely in a perizonium with abundant parallel folds. He shows clear signs of the martyrdom suffered during the Passion, explicit in the blood flowing from the wounds to his hands and, particularly, to his side. His body is robust and rounded, with an ample ribcage and the ribs highly pronounced. He wears the crown of thorns on his head, which has caused the cuts from which a few drops of blood are trickling down his forehead and face. He also presents a nimbus with rays of light, executed using the pastillage technique and gilt plaster. He has a long head of straight hair, which falls down over his shoulders and back. As regards his face, it is that of a corpse. His eyes are shut, and wrinkles reinforce his expressivity. His eyebrows are thin and delicate, drawn with two simple brown lines. His cheekbones are prominent and hint at the bone structure, covered by a fairly sparse and trimmed beard. His mouth, slightly open, does not reveal any teeth.

We observe Our Lady of Sorrows just to his right, her hands clasped together in prayer. She wears a white widow’s headdress and a red robe with generous vertical folds. Her cloak, with a dot-marked trim, is blue on the outside and orange on the inside. It covers her whole body, including her head, and falls into long, tube-shaped folds like those of the robe. Mary’s face is delicate, with a mournful expression, heightened by her looking down towards the ground. Her brown eyes are half-open while her fleshy lips are firmly closed. There is a pink blush to her cheeks, where we can appreciate the greyish lines commonly found in tempera painting. Behind her head she has a round golden nimbus, executed in gilt stucco relief. It includes a number of circumferences and the inside is made up of floral motifs with fleshy leaf shapes surrounded by deep punch marks.

St. John the Evangelist, meanwhile, appears on Christ’s left. He is wearing a brown robe with a reddish cloak on top, covering his left arm, whose shape we can just make out under the volume of the garment. The inside of the latter is of a yellowish hue, much like the robe as we intuit from the neck area. The Saint’s body language denotes sadness and concern, as may be appreciated from his face and the gesture of his right hand, which is holding his somewhat distraught face by the chin. The furrowed brow, the downward gaze and half-open mouth heighten this image of despair. He is pictured with a highly prominent ear and ruffled curly blond hair, with multiple reflections. Behind his head there is a gold nimbus in gilt relief much like the one we saw with Mary.

The tomb is a red-colored sarcophagus with a mottled look, giving the material the appearance of porphyry. Some of the Arma Christi are arranged on top of it, specifically the hammer, pliers and a nail towards the front, with the dice and jar of vinegar behind them. The rest of the Instruments of the Passion are pictured towards the back, around the cross of martyrdom, which is crowned by the titulus “INRI” (Ihesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum). The transom of the cross features the two nails that secured the hands of the Son of God, and which are still bloody. It also has a ladder leaning against it, as well as the delicate Veil of Veronica, executed in grisaille, and the flagellation whips.

On the left we see the Spear of Longinus, while towards the center we observe some canes, one of the torches that guided the Roman soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane, and the ear of Malchus, alongside the knife with which St. Peter cut it off. Of particular note is the tormentor, or Jew, with a pseudo-grotesque face and prominent nose, carrying a cane. It is surprising to observe how he spits at Christ, something not at all common in this sort of depiction. He also appears to be holding the bag of 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas Iscariot. Above St. John’s nimbus a sort of axe or pick seems to be sticking out, along with a long stick, without doubt used to pass the vinegar-soaked sponge up to Christ’s mouth. Finally, on our right, we see the Column at which Christ was flogged, with the whipcords wound around it and, on top, the lantern with which Judas lit the soldiers’ way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Both the square format of the panel and the iconography confirm that this was the central compartment of an altarpiece predella. Another aspect bearing this out is the original existence of gilt cresting at the top, which has since been lost, but whose impression can still be discerned.

From a technical point of view, it is worth noting the presence of an incised drawing on the front of the panel, which would have been used by the painter to outline the main elements making up the composition. We can see this clearly in the area where the two shafts of the cross meet, as well as in the outlining of the figures and some of the Arma Christi. If we turn our attention to the back, we observe that the compartment was made up of two similarly-sized panels arranged horizontally, something often found in altarpiece predella compartments. The joint between the two was secured with adhesive paste, and then strengthened with fabric, which was aimed at combatting the relative swelling and shrinking of the wood that would take place in accordance with the surrounding humidity levels due to its hygroscopic nature. This fabric, along with other elements used in the preparation of panels, served to minimize such effects, which could end up leading to the appearance of cracks on the painted surface.

We can also observe that, over the entire surface of the back of the panel, remnants remain of a preparation made up of plaster, animal glue and vegetable fibers, the purpose of which was also to lessen the effect of potential expansions and contractions in the wood. As such, the back surface was covered with a plaster paste, undoubtedly using animal glue as a binder, onto which burlap was applied, which explains the presence of vegetable fibers. The aim here was much the same, to ensure the stability of the joint between the two panels in the event of the wood shrinking or swelling. It was a system that proved extremely popular in Hispanic pictorial workshops in the early Middle Ages. Finally, in order to strengthen the general structure of the compartment, the joiner or carpenter attached a vertical cross-piece, now lost, but whose mark can still be made out in the central area. Said cross-piece was secured using nails inserted into the front of the panel, and the ends of the nails were bent back over once they had gone through the cross-piece at the back. Once the cross-piece was lost, the nails were sheared off, though their presence is still observable at first glance.