The Crucifixion

c. 1504/1505

Luca Signorelli

Artist, Cortonese, 1445/1450 - 1523

In this horizontal painting, a crowd of more than two dozen men and women gathered shoulder to shoulder at the foot of three men hanging from wooden crosses nearly fill the scene. All the people have pale or ruddy skin. To our left of center, each of the crucified men is tied and nailed to a cross. Blood pours from their hands and feet, and from a gash over the central man’s right ribs. The men’s heads slump and their bodies sag. They are nude except for a red cloth across the central man’s hips and a small white loincloth on the man to our right. Two of the men wear crowns of thorns. The spear piercing the central man’s side is held by a man riding a white horse in the crowd below. At least three additional men in the crowd are on horseback. Many of the men are armed with spears, creating a bristle of vertical and diagonal lines over the group. The men and women wear robes and uniforms in shades of golden yellow, pine green, crimson and rust red, black, and cream white. A few men wear metal helmets, and one wears armor. Near the lower left corner, a woman wearing a navy-blue robe has fainted and is supported by two kneeling women while another woman and cleanshaven man look on, their fingers interlaced and held low. The smooth ground is grass green. A spindly tree with dark green leaves grows up the right side of the composition. Off in the distance beyond the tree, two buildings hint at a city. Blue clouds billow in the blue sky above.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 7

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera, oil, and gilding on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 72.5 × 101.3 cm (28 9/16 × 39 7/8 in.)
    framed: 94.93 × 123.67 × 11.43 cm (37 3/8 × 48 11/16 × 4 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.75

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly painted for the main of the church of Sant'Agostino, Matelica (Macerata).[1] Citernesi, Florence; purchased May 1883 by Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[2] sold February 1894 to Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold June or July 1947 to (Gualtiero Volterra, London) for (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[3] sold July 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Collection, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] According to a convincing hypothesis first formulated dubitatively by Mario Salmi, "Chiosa Signorelliana," Commentari 4 (1953): 114, and subsequently confirmed by Laurence B. Kanter, "The Late Works of Luca Signorelli and His Followers, 1498-1559," Ph.D. diss., New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, 1989: 131-136, and Laurence B. Kanter and David Franklin, "Some Passion Scenes by Luca Signorelli after 1500," MittKIF 35 (1991): 171-192. At first Mario Salmi (Luca Signorelli, Novara, 1953: 59) suggested the possible provenance of the painting from a lost Lamentation over the Dead Christ mentioned by Vasari (Vite, Milanesi edition, 3:686) as painted for a church at Monte Santa Maria. The scholar evidently abandoned this idea and it was not taken into consideration by others.
[2] According to Robinson's account book (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; copy of relevant page in NGA curatorial files). See also Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond & Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. I. Italian Schools, London, 1913: 1:no. 53.
[3] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. Volterra was Contini Bonacossi's agent in London. An expertise written in Italian (not in English, like those made for pictures already acquired by the Kress Foundation), dated April 1948 and signed by Longhi (copy in NGA curatorial files), was made in all probability for Contini Bonacossi, to whom Longhi was permanent advisor, shortly after the acquisition of the painting.
[4] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi on 7 June 1948 for a group of twenty-eight paintings, including the Signorelli; the offer was accepted on 11 July 1948 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2117).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1893

  • Exhibition of the Work of Luca Signorelli and His School, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1893, no. 15.

1946

  • Loan Exhibition of the Cook Collection of Primitive and Early Renaissance Paintings (1350-1550); venues: municipal art galleries of Norwich, Sheffield, Leicester, Blackpool, Manchester, Southampton, Brighton; tour by Art Exh. Bureau, 1946-1947, no. 13.

2012

  • Luca Signorelli "de ingegno et spirito pelegrino", Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, 2012, no. 50, repro.

2023

  • Signorelli 500: Maestro Luca da Cortona, pittore di luce e poesia, Palazzo Casali-MAEC, Cortona, 2023, no. 14, repro.

Bibliography

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. 2nd ed. New York, 1909: 250.

1913

  • Borenius, Tancred. A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. Italian Schools. Vol. I, Pt. 2. Edited by Herbert Cook. London, 1913: 62, cat. 53, repro.

1921

  • Venturi, Adolfo. Luca Signorelli. Florence, 1921-1922: 64.

1927

  • Dussler, Luitpold. Luca Signorelli. Des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1927: 171, 211, repro.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 533.

  • Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook. London, 1932: 51, cat. 53.

1936

  • Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento: catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi. Milan, 1936: 458.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 64, no. 21, repro.

1953

  • Salmi, Mario. “Chiosa Signorelliana.” Commentari 4 (1953): 113.

  • Salmi, Mario. Luca Signorelli. Novara, 1953: 31, 59, fig. 59a.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 90, repro.

1964

  • Scarpellini, Pietro. Luca Signorelli. Florence, 1964: 143.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 122.

1966

  • Lenzini Moriondo, Margherita. Luca Signorelli. Florence, 1966: 25.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 109, repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 96-97, fig. 232.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:401.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 188, 647.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 324, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:427-428; 2:pl. 306.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 108, no. 81, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 372, repro.

1989

  • Kanter, Laurence B. "The Late Works of Luca Signorelli and His Followers, 1498-1559." Ph.D. diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1989: 131-136.

1991

  • Gizzi, Corrado, ed. Signorelli e Dante. Exh. cat. Castello Gizzi, Torre de’ Passeri, 1991: 302.

  • Kanter, Laurence B., and David Franklin. “Some Passion Scenes by Luca Signorelli after 1500.” _ Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz_ 35 (1991): 175, 177-180, 187, no. 10.

1998

  • Henry, Tom, ed. Signorelli in British Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 1998.

2002

  • Kanter, Laurence B., and Tom Henry. Luca Signorelli: The Complete Paintings. Milan, 2002: 69-70, 208-210, cat. 68.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 643-648, color repro.

2012

  • Henry, Tom. The Life and Art of Luca Signorelli. New Haven and London, 2012: 217, figs. 198, 204.

2019

  • Papi, Federica. “Dall’oblio alla riscoperta. Signorelli nel mercato antiquario.” In Federica Papi and Claudio Parisi Presicce, eds. Luca Signorelli e Roma. Oblio e riscoperte. Exh. cat. Musei Capitolini, Rome, 2019: 132.

Wikidata ID

Q20174916

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