Click on any panel in the altarpiece reconstruction below to see an enlarged version of the image. Color reproductions in the reconstruction indicate panels in the National Gallery of Art collection.
Overview
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
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.
Entry
The Crucifixion is enacted in front of the crenellated wall of the city of Jerusalem. The cross is flanked above by four fluttering angels, three of whom collect the blood that flows from the wounds in Christ’s hands and side. To the left of the Cross, the Holy Women, a compact group, support the swooning Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary Magdalene kneels at the foot of the Cross, caressing Christ’s feet with her hands. To the right of the Cross stand Saint John the Evangelist, in profile, and a group of soldiers with the centurion in the middle, distinguished by a halo, who recognizes the Son of God in Jesus.
As for the hand that painted the panel in Washington, apart from the first tentative attributions to Nicoletto Semitecolo
If, as seems to me plausible, we accept that the painting discussed here belongs to the same complex of which the fragments in the Worcester Museum and the Madonna in Avignon formed part, the scope for comparisons and for formulating more precise chronological parameters is widened. The Saint Francis of the Worcester Museum seems more slender than the corresponding image of the saint in the Museo Civico in Vicenza, dated 1333,
To these stylistic observations we may add some comments on the iconography and costumes worn by the figures in the panels. Bearing in mind that iconographic changes may depend on the requirements of particular patrons and that their use as criteria for dating a work of art should be evaluated with a great deal of caution, I do not think it accidental that in the Madonna of Carpineta and in Paolo’s later representations of the same subject Mary is always shown with a dress sumptuously decorated with floriated motifs in gold and that the child, instead of wearing the traditional long tunic, is represented nude (even if draped in a mantle) or is shown wearing a transparent chemise that leaves his legs exposed. This motif, of Byzantine origin, soon spread in Tuscan painting,
Miklós Boskovits (1935–2011)
March 21, 2016
Inscription
upper center: I.N.R.I. (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)
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.
Technical Summary
The painting, executed on a single piece of wood with vertical grain, has triangular additions of relatively recent date at the upper corners.
The panel has numerous old wormholes and some small cracks along the bottom edge. A light overall
Bibliography
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- 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.
Related Content
Altarpiece Reconstruction

Reconstruction of a portable triptych by Paolo Veneziano
Panel A
Saint Christopher (reverse of panel B)
Panel B
a. Angel of the Annunciation (Entry fig. 5)
b. Saint Michael Archangel (Entry fig. 3)
c. Saint John the Baptist (Entry fig. 3)
d. Saint George (Entry fig. 3)
e. Saint Francis (Entry fig. 3)
Panel C
a.
b. Madonna and Child (Entry fig. 6)
Panel D
a. Virgin Annunciate (Entry fig. 5)
b. The Ecstasy of Saint Mary Magdalene (Entry fig. 3)
c. Saint Barbara (Entry fig. 3)
d. Saint Anthony Abbot (Entry fig. 3)
Panel E
Saint Blaise (reverse of panel D)