Crucifix with Scenes of the Passion (c. 1230–40): Art, History and Details

Crucifix with Scenes of the Passion (c. 1230–40) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Large painted crucifixes dating from the 1100s and 1200s are among the earliest surviving Italian panel paintings. Large crosses, like this beautiful example, were typically suspended high above an altar in the main apse of Italian churches. Smaller crosses were placed on or just above altars in small side chapels. Such crosses served as the visual focus for devotion and symbolized the Eucharistic sacrament performed by the priest on the altar below. This crucifix shows Christ alive on the cross as the triumphant savior of mankind. Smaller images on the "apron" represent images of Christ's Passion (to the left) and his death and Resurrection (to the right). On the far left terminal appear the mourning Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, while on the right the viewer is shown Saint James Major and Saint Bona, patroness of the city of Pisa. The concluding event, the Ascension of Christ, once appeared on the upper terminal, just above the Virgin and Apostles. The figure of Christ is painted in a severe and hieratic style suggestive of medieval Pisa's artistic and commercial links with the Byzantine East. The appearance of Saint Bona on this cross may suggest that it was made for the Church of S. Martino in Pisa, where Franciscan nuns tended the holy woman's relics.

Object facts

• Title: Crucifix with Scenes of the Passion
• Date: c. 1230–40
• Culture: Italy, Pisa
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera with gold on panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 186.6 x 160.7 x 12.7 cm (73 7/16 x 63 1/4 x 5 in.); Unframed: 185 x 160 x 10.2 cm (72 13/16 x 63 x 4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1995.5

A detail from the museum

Although the artist did sign this panel at the bottom, the signature is illegible, his first name perhaps being Michael.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kimball, Fiske. "Two Purchases." The Philadelphia Museum Bulletin 48, no. 236 (1953).
• Stubblebine, James H. "A Crucifix for Saint Bona" Apollo vol. 125 (March 1987).
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Adds Rare Medieval Work to Paintings Collection,” March 7, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.