And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost

The death of Jesus. J-J Tissot

Saint John - Chapter 19

[30] ... Et inclinato capite tradidit spiritum.
... And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

One last cry was uttered by Jesus before His death, as related in the accounts given of the final scene by Saint Matthew and Saint Luke.  Saint Matthew adds nothing to the fact that that cry was uttered, but Saint Luke has preserved for us the last words of Jesus.  "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said:  Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The fact that the Saviour was able to utter a loud cry at the supreme moment of the yielding up of His spirit, when He must have been terribly weakened and exhausted by His long suffering, has always been considered by Christian authorities as a manifestation of the freedom of the God-Man even when face to face with death.  "No man take if it from me", He had said of His life, "I lay it down and I have power to take it again." 

It is Saint John who gives us the last details with regard to the death of Christ.  "He bowed his head", says that Evangelist.  Hitherto He had held His head erect, but now that His work is finished, He bends it gently and yields up His spirit.  In our picture Saint John is seen approaching to kiss the feet of his divine Master; Mary Magdalene, who has never left her post, is still on her knees, whilst the Mother of the Lord stretches out her arms towards her Son, as if she would fain follow Him.  Very few spectators are now left about the Cross, for the death of the divine Victim has taken place sooner than was expected, and, as a matter of fact, it ensued with a rapidity unusual in cases of crucifixion.  Pilate was, indeed, so surprised at hearing that the end was come that he sent a centurion to make sure that the Victim was really dead, thus affording a guarantee to posterity that He Who was to rise again on the third day had indeed suffered death.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam