The Crucifixion (1470s): Art, History and Details

The Crucifixion (1470s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, c. 1435–1495).

The work and its context

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

This small picture belonged to a predella, a series of subsidiary panels consisting of narrative scenes and situated at the bottom of an altarpiece. Predella paintings are significant because the artist was allowed more freedom and inventiveness here than in the higher part of the altarpiece. In this Crucifixion scene, the harmony of colors, the monumentality of the figures, and the symmetry of the composition all reflect the classical spirit of Renaissance Italy. Moreover, the panel shows some characteristics of the traditional Sienese school—such as the quality and elegance of the lines—which persists in Giovanni’s works.

Object facts

• Title: The Crucifixion
• Date: 1470s
• Creator attribution: Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, c. 1435–1495)
• Culture: Italy, Siena
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and oil with gold on wood panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 39.4 x 38.1 x 4.5 cm (15 1/2 x 15 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 29.8 x 31 cm (11 3/4 x 12 3/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1940.535

Collection credit

Bequest of James Parmelee

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry. "The Bequest of James Parmelee." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no. 2 (February 1941): 15-27.
• Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.