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, Italian, 1398-1482
Title
Christ on the Cross
Date1460s
MediumTempera and gold leaf on wood panel
Dimensions
Painted surface: 163.3 x 99.5 cm
Credit LinePurchased, 1964 (Shaw Fund)
Object numberNGI.1768
DescriptionThe original location of this depiction of Christ on the Cross is not known but it is reasonable to presume that it was executed for an important ecclesiastical building in Siena. It may have been intended for a church, where large images of Christ on the Cross were often suspended above an altar. However, there is a possibility that this dramatic crucifix was part of a larger composition which originally included the kneeling figures of the Virgin Mary and St John the evangelist at the foot of the Cross.

Giovanni di Paolo, the author of this dramatic work, was a remarkably sensitive artist. He used a rich palette to paint a wide range of religious subjects in a visionary, expressionistic manner. His highly personal style represents the transition between the Gothic and the Renaissance period in Siena.
ProvenancePurchased, Wildenstein & co., New York, 1964 Label TextChrist's death on the cross is a central motif of Christian art. This example, by the fifteenth-century Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo, is sensitively realised. The stylised figure of Christ, painted in tempera on gold, indicates the artist’s connection to the Late-Gothic tradition of painting. Six angels, incised into the gold background, flank Christ’s body. One angel catches the blood that falls from Christ’s side in a chalice; Christians believe that the blood of Christ holds redemptive powers, and this motif foretells the sacrament of Communion.