The Crucifixion

c. 1340/1345

Paolo Veneziano

Artist, Venetian, active 1333 - 1358

At least eleven people gather around a man hanging from a wooden cross, all against a gold background in this nearly square painting. The people have pale skin tinged heavily with gray, and pink on the cheeks. At the center of the composition, the man, Jesus, hangs from nails driven into the cross through his palms and feet. His thin body is covered only by a sheer loincloth across his hips. His knees angle to our left, and his head tips in that direction. He has a beard and auburn-brown, shoulder-length hair. His eyes are closed under furrowed brows. A gold halo surrounds his head and has red lines radiating to the red outline of the disk. The letters “INRI” appear on a panel on top of the cross. Three small, winged angels, like miniature people, catch vibrant red blood spurting or trickling from Jesus’s two palms and a gash over his right ribs in gold bowls. A fourth angel clasps hands in prayer. The angels have brown or blond hair, gold halos, and cobalt-blue robes and wings. A woman with long, curly, copper-colored hair kneels at the base of the cross, holding Jesus’s bleeding feet. To our left, a woman wearing lapis-blue swoons into the arms of two women who wear hoods and robes in marigold orange or nickel gray. All four women have gold halos, as do two of the four men standing together to our right. One of those men has short, copper-blond hair and wears a blue robe. His cloak is rose pink on one side and green on the other. He holds his small hands together in prayer and looks up at Jesus in profile. The other three men wear helmets and armored breastplates. One of them, at the front of that trio, has a halo and he points up at Jesus. The hand and torso of another person is visible along the right edge of this group, but the upper body has been lost. The cross sits on a low, rocky rise over a small cavern holding a skull. The ground around the cross and groups is carnation pink. A crenelated, turquoise-colored wall, about elbow height, runs across the back of the scene. The glimmering gold background is worn in some areas, revealing the red ground beneath the gold leaf.

Media Options

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Originally, this painting had an arched top, the contour of which can still be traced in the different appearance of the gilding, which shows that the corners were added much later to transform the panel into a rectangle. Changes like this underscore the fact that early Italian paintings were experienced very differently by their contemporaries than by today’s museum-goers, who are accustomed to single, usually rectangular, paintings hanging by themselves on pristine walls. When artists made these works hundreds of years ago, most were part of altarpieces, and their gold surfaces would have been seen in the flicker of candlelight. Given its shape and small size (some 15 inches high), this panel was probably centered at the top of a triptych (see Reconstruction).

Paolo Veneziano was the most prominent painter in Venice in the 14th century and exerted a lasting influence there. He and his sons were commissioned to paint panels to cover the magnificent high altar called the Pala d’Oro in Saint Mark’s Basilica, one of the city’s greatest treasures. Concealed behind Paolo’s wooden altarpiece, the Pala—which consisted of gold and enameled plaques from Byzantium framed with pearls and jewels—was visible only on feast days; Church leadership needed something beautiful and instructive for parishioners to view the remainder of the year. Being awarded this important commission is an indication of the status of Paolo and his workshop.

Paolo’s art combined Byzantine and Western European elements in terms of the settings and biblical narratives he chose and in his artistic style. This panel, for example, shows the Crucifixion taking place before the crenellated walls of Jerusalem. Fluttering angels collect Christ’s blood, and the skull of Adam lies buried beneath the rock of Golgotha. All of these details are found in Byzantine representations. The swooning Virgin and kneeling Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, are derived from Western European depictions. In terms of style, Paolo’s painting straddles the two traditions, combining the abstraction of Byzantine icons with the softer modeling and more dynamic poses found in the art of the West.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 1

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    painted surface: 31 x 38 cm (12 3/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
    overall: 33.85 x 41.1 cm (13 5/16 x 16 3/16 in.)
    framed: 37.2 x 45.4 x 5.7 cm (14 5/8 x 17 7/8 x 2 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.143

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: The Crucifixion, c. 1340/1345

This horizontal painting is made up of three parts: in the center square panel, a woman reclines under a wooden shelter set into a rocky cave, which is surrounded by angels, and narrower wings to either side are each occupied by a standing man. All the people have pale skin, which is tinged with faint green. The three panels are joined with a gold frame, and the gold background behind the central scene and the men in the side panels are covered with a noticeable network of cracks. In the central panel, a cobalt-blue robe nearly envelopes the reclining woman’s body; this is Mary. It covers her head and falls open where she crosses her wrists over her chest to show a pink garment underneath. A flat gold halo encircles her head ,and her body is surrounded by a field of crimson red, almost like an aura. She rests under a wooden structure with a pitched roof, which is surrounded by craggy, barren rock. A swaddled infant lies in a rectangular, tray-like manger. The infant’s head is also surrounded by a gold halo. Fine gold rays emanate down into the structure from a star just above the peak of the roof. A bull and a donkey look down at the baby from the far side of the manger. The interior of the structure behind them is black. In a smaller scale, two women wash a haloed infant in a tub in front of the rocky cave near the lower left corner of this panel. A man with a white beard and hair sits to our left of Mary, holding a pink cloak at his throat and looking toward the infant. Above and around the rocks, seven winged and haloed angels cluster on each side. One angel to the right presents a scroll with black writing to two men accompanied by a dog and several sheep in the lower right. The man in the panel to the left, Isaiah, has a gray beard and long, wavy hair, and he wears a lilac-purple cloak draped over a coral-orange robe. In his right hand, on our left, he holds an unfurled scroll with large black lettering. His other hand is raised with one finger pointing upward. He looks to our left, away from the central scene. On the right, Ezekiel, echoes Isaiah's pose. Ezekiel holds an open scroll with his left hand, on our right, and his other hand is raised. He also wears a coral-colored robe, but his is overlaid with a blue cloak. His receding hair is short and brown, as is his beard. Like Isaiah, he takes up most of the height of the panel and gazes to our left, toward the central panel.

Scholarly Series:  Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Italian art market, probably Venice), by 1902.[1] Achillito Chiesa, Milan, early twentieth century;[2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold July 1934 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] In his article of 1912, Roger Fry reproduces the painting together with another, similarly attributed to the school of Semitecolo, explaining that it was present “some years ago in the market in Italy” (Roger Fry, "Exhibition of Pictures and the Early Venetian School at the Burlington Fine Arts Club," The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 21 [1912]: 47, pl. 2). Fry had probably seen it in October 1902; in fact, in a letter dated 10 October 1902, written to his wife from Venice, he reports, “I’ve had great luck today, managed to get to see some pictures by Semitecolo what I’ve never managed before”; Letters of Roger Fry, ed. Denys Sutton, 2 vols., New York, 1972: 1:196.
[2] The collection of Achillito Chiesa, which the great art dealer Luigi Bellini calls the “più importante e intelligente collezione di oggetti d’arte italiana fondata in questi ultimi cinquant’anni in Italia” ("the most important, and intelligent, collection of Italian art objects formed in Italy within the last fifty years") (Luigi Bellini, Nel mondo degli antiquari, Florence, 1947: 223–224), was dispersed between 1925 and 1931 because of the collector’s financial difficulties; see Elisabeth E. Gardner, A Bibliographical Repertory of Italian Private Collections, 3 vols., ed. Chiara Ceschi and Katharine Baetjer, Vicenza, 1998: 1:227-228.
[3] The bill of sale is dated 13 July 1934 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2114.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2021

  • Paolo Veneziano: Art & Devotion in 14th-Century Venice, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2021 - 2022, no. 5, repro.

Bibliography

1912

  • Fry, Roger. "Exhibition of Pictures of the Early Venetian School at the Burlington Fine Arts Club." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 21 (1912): 47, pl. 2.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 147, no. 254.

  • National Gallery of Art. Book of Illustrations. Washington, 1941: 160 (repro.), 238.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 244, repro. 163.

1944

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 73-74, repro. no. 84

1946

  • Longhi, Roberto. Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana. Florence, 1946: 45, pl. 7.

1951

  • Galetti, Ugo, and Ettore Camesasca. Enciclopedia della pittura italiana. 3 vols. Milan, 1951: 3:1855.

1956

  • Laclotte, Michel. De Giotto à Bellini: les primitifs italiens dans les musées de France. Exh. cat. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1956: 19.

  • Arslan, Edoardo. "Una nuova Madonna di Paolo Veneto." Commentari 7 (1956): 21 n. 8.

  • Laclotte, Michel. "Peintures italiennes des XIVe et XVe siècles à l’Orangerie." Arte veneta 10 (1956): 226.

  • Laclotte, Michel. "A propos de l’exposition ‘De Giotto à Bellini.’" La Revue des arts 6 (1956): 78, repro.

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. "Nota per Paolo Veneziano." In Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Lionello Venturi. 2 vols. Rome, 1956: 1:131 fig. 10, 132, 135.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:129, pl. 6.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 28, repro.

1961

  • Walcher Casotti, Maria. Il Trittico di S. Chiara di Trieste e l’orientamento paleologo nell’arte di Paolo Veneziano. Trieste, 1961: 19.

1964

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo, ed. La pittura veneziana del Trecento. Venice, 1964: 32, fig. 97.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 99.

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. "Maestro Paolo da Venezia: fortuna critica." Ateneo veneto 3 (1965): 93.

  • Gamulin, Grgo. "Un crocefisso di Maestro Paolo e di altri due del Trecento." Arte veneta 19 (1965): 37.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 8, fig. 10.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 87, repro.

1969

  • Muraro, Michelangelo. Paolo da Venezia. Milan, 1969: 61, 78 n. 47, 99, 156-157, 158, pls. 91-93.

  • Sandberg-Vavalà, Evelyn. "Maestro Paolo Veneziano: suoi dipinti in America e altrove." In Paolo da Venezia. Milan, 1969: 99.

1970

  • Gamulin, Grgo. "Di un libro su Paolo da Venezia." Arte veneta 24 (1970): 266.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 158, 291, 645, 660.

1973

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 381.

1974

  • Davies, Martin. "Italian School." In European Paintings in the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Vol. 1, Text. Edited by Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, MA, 1974: 415, 417.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 260, repro.

1976

  • Laclotte, Michel, and Elisabeth Mognetti. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: peinture italienne. 2nd ed. Paris, 1976: no. 202.

1977

  • Kiel, Hanna. "Das Polyptychon von Paolo und Giovanni Veneziano in Sanseverino Marche." Pantheon 35 (1977): 107, 108 n. 8, fig. 4.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:354-355; 2:pl. 256.

1983

  • Fornari Schianchi, Lucia. La Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Parma, 1983: 34.

  • Loÿe, Georges de, Elisabeth Mognetti, and Dominique Thiébaut. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais. Paris, 1983: 32.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 299, repro.

1987

  • Laclotte, Michel, and Elisabeth Mognetti. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: peinture italienne. 3rd ed. Paris, 1987: 186.

1991

  • Flores d’Arcais, Francesca. "Paolo Veneziano." In Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale. Edited by Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana. 12 vols. Rome, 1991-2002: 9(1998):158.

1992

  • Flores d’Arcais, Francesca. "Venezia." In La Pittura nel Veneto. Il Trecento. Edited by Mauro Lucco. 2 vols. Milan, 1992: 1:30, fig. 16, pls. 31 and 34.

1993

  • Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 142, fig. 154.

1994

  • Flores d’Arcais, Francesca. "La pittura." In Storia di Venezia. Temi. L’Arte. 2 vols. Edited by Rodolfo Pallucchini. Rome, 1994: 1:259.

1996

  • Gibbs, Robert. "Paolo Veneziano." In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York, 1996: 24:32.

1997

  • Santini, Clara. "Un episodio della pittura veneziana di primo Trecento: il ‘Maestro dell’Incoronazione della Vergine di Washington’." Il Santo 37 (1997): 144, pl. 25.

  • Fornari Schianchi, Lucia, ed. Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Vol. 1, Catalogo delle opere dall’antico al Cinquecento. Milan, 1997: 44.

1998

  • Frinta, Mojmír S. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998: 128.

  • Gardner, Elizabeth E. In A Bibliographical Repertory of Italian Private Collections. 4 vols. Edited by Chiara Ceschi and Katharine Baetjer. Vicenza, 1998-2011: 1(1998):228.

2000

  • Fossaluzza, Giorgio, ed. Da Paolo Veneziano a Canova: capolavori dei musei veneti restaurati dalla Regione del Veneto 1984-2000. Exh. cat. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 2000: 43.

2002

  • Mori, Francesco. "Paolo Veneziano." in La pittura in Europa. Il Dizionario dei pittori. Edited by Carlo Pirovano. 3 vols. Milan, 2002: 3:676-677, repro.

  • Flores d’Arcais, Francesca, and Giovanni Gentili, eds. Il Trecento Adriatico: Paolo Veneziano e la pittura tra Oriente e Occidente. Exh. cat. Castel Sismondo, Rimini. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2002: 148, 164.

  • Flores d’Arcais, Francesca. "Paolo Veneziano e la pittura del Trecento in Adriatico." In Il Trecento Adriatico: Paolo Veneziano e la pittura tra Oriente e Occidente. Edited by Francesca Flores d’Arcais and Giovanni Gentili. Exh. cat. Castel Sismondo, Rimini. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2002: 22.

2003

  • Pedrocco, Filippo. Paolo Veneziano. Milan and Venice, 2003: 70, 122 (repro.), 126, 131 n. 79, 154, repro. 155.

2005

  • Splendeurs de la peinture italienne, 1250-1510. Exh. cat. Galerie G. Sarti. Paris, 2005: 32, 37.

  • Laclotte, Michel, and Esther Moench. Peinture italienne: Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon. Paris, 2005: 172, repro. 246.

  • De Marchi, Andrea, ed. Autour de Lorenzo Veneziano: fragments de polyptyques vénitiens du XIVe siècle. Exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2005: 19 (repro.), 20, 88.

2006

  • Guarnieri, Cristina. Lorenzo Veneziano. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2006: 96 n. 91.

2008

  • De Franceschi, Enzo. "I mosaici della cappella di Sant’Isidoro nella Basilica di San Marco fra la tradizione bizantina e le novità di Paolo Veneziano." Zograf 32 (2008): 125, repro. 126.

2010

  • Guarnieri, Cristina. "Per la Restituzione di due croci Perdute di Paolo Veneziano: il Leone Marciano del Museo Correr e i dolenti della Galleria Sabauda." In Medioevo Adriatico: Circolazione di Modelli, opere, maestri. Edited by Giovanna Valenzano and Federica Toniolo. Rome, 2010: 140, 152 repro.

2016

  • Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 325-333, color repro.

Inscriptions

upper center: I.N.R.I. (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)

Wikidata ID

Q20173137

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