At the time Murray received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1962, graduating students were invited to submit a work to the fellowship competition based on a piece in the Art Institute’s collection. A painting by Bernardino Butinone, The Descent from the Cross, inspired her to create this drawing, which references Butinone’s limp, deceased Christ. Murray also made a painting, which recast the scene in a comedic way, but she failed to win the fellowship prize.