Deposition from the Cross (detail)

In the distance at the top left lies Jerusalem, shown by Angelico as a sparkling Tuscan hill town. The city fortifications appear as a series of cubes, pillars, and walls massed together in a sharply defining light. Buildings of widely varying sizes, shapes and colours are arranged together within the city walls. At the top of the hill rises a citadel-like temple. Outside the city gates lies a landscape of ploughed fields, farmhouses, and hedgerows. In the sky, above a storm cloud is gathering which throws shadow over half the city. The whole is viewed through a screen of trees, which mark out the middle distance in the complete picture.