The Crucifixion

Description Originally the central panel of a portable triptych (three-panel painting), this work reflects the mid 14th-century demand for lively, crowd-filled paintings featuring key moments in Christ's life. The painter has enhanced the worshipers' connection to sacred history by having the participants in the scene wear contemporary costumes and using stippled gold leaf to imitate the texture of the chain mail worn by soldiers. Perhaps most important, the Virgin's collapse into the arms of her companions and her anguished facial expression convey the depth of her participation in her son's suffering.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
1/29/1977	Examination	examined for condition

Exhibitions

• The International Style: The Arts in Europe Around 1400. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1962.
• A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 2016-2017.
• Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Medieval Trans-Saharan Exchange. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston; Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 2019-2021.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore, prior to 1909 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, before 1909