The canvas of the deposition was commissioned by the Confraternity initially from Raffaellino del Colle. However the Sack of 1527 had exiled Rosso from Rome, and while in Sansepolcro, he was given the commission. The recent events in Rome likely contributed to the painting's dark and turbulent assembly, relative to the painter's prior depiction of the same subject in his Volterra masterpiece. The Sansepolcro Deposition depicts a mob surrounding a cadaverous Christ and his grieving mother, including monstruous or hooded faces in the background; the Volterra painting is more intimate and depicts those struggling with physically lowering the delicate corpse, in addition to those struggling with the emotional impact of the death.