The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 16, 2024

Crucifix with Scenes of the Passion

Crucifix with Scenes of the Passion

c. 1230–40
tempera with gold on panel
Framed: 186.6 x 160.7 x 12.7 cm (73 7/16 x 63 1/4 x 5 in.); Unframed: 185 x 160 x 10.2 cm (72 13/16 x 63 x 4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1995.5
Location: 100 1916 Lobby

Did You Know?

Although the artist did sign this panel at the bottom, the signature is illegible, his first name perhaps being Michael.

Description

Large painted crucifixes dating from the 1100s and 1200s are among the earliest surviving Italian panel paintings. Large crosses, like this beautiful example, were typically suspended high above an altar in the main apse of Italian churches. Smaller crosses were placed on or just above altars in small side chapels. Such crosses served as the visual focus for devotion and symbolized the Eucharistic sacrament performed by the priest on the altar below. This crucifix shows Christ alive on the cross as the triumphant savior of mankind. Smaller images on the "apron" represent images of Christ's Passion (to the left) and his death and Resurrection (to the right). On the far left terminal appear the mourning Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, while on the right the viewer is shown Saint James Major and Saint Bona, patroness of the city of Pisa. The concluding event, the Ascension of Christ, once appeared on the upper terminal, just above the Virgin and Apostles. The figure of Christ is painted in a severe and hieratic style suggestive of medieval Pisa's artistic and commercial links with the Byzantine East. The appearance of Saint Bona on this cross may suggest that it was made for the Church of S. Martino in Pisa, where Franciscan nuns tended the holy woman's relics.
  • ?-1995
    Galerie Sanct Lucas, Wein, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1995-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Kimball, Fiske. "Two Purchases." The Philadelphia Museum Bulletin 48, no. 236 (1953). pp. 19-29 www.jstor.org
    Stubblebine, James H. "A Crucifix for Saint Bona" Apollo vol. 125 (March 1987). p. 160-165
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Adds Rare Medieval Work to Paintings Collection,” March 7, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Chong, Alan. "Triumphant Christ" Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (April 1996). pp. 4-6
    Chong, Alan, “Triumphant Christ”, Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 04, April 1996 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 archive.org
    "Acquisition of the Year" 142 Apollo (Dec. 1997). p. 9
    Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. p. 448
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. no. 20, p. 25 & 116
    Burresi, Mariagiulia, and Antonino Caleca. Cimabue a Pisa: la pittura pisana del Duecento da Giunta a Giotto. Ospedaletto (Pisa): Pacini, 2005. cat. no. 40, p. 174-177
    Flora, Holly, Rachel Billinge, and Elaine Koss. Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting. New York, N.Y.: Frick Collection, 2006. p. 26, fig 15
    Boskovits, Miklos, Ada Labriola, Valentino Pace and Angelo Tartufferi. "Officina Pisana: il XIII secolo," Arte Christiana 834, XCIV (2006). p. 169, fig. 10
    Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 20, fig. 10
    Bacci, Michele. "Shaping the Sacred: Painted Crosses and Shrines in Thirteenth-Century Pisa," Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, Band 38 (2007/2008). 115-129; fig. 1 and pp. 115-17
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. p. 26
    Bozzoli, Chiara. " 'Baciami con I baci della tua bocca' Riflessioni sulle moldalità di espressione del trasporto emotivo nell'arte medievale. " Critica D'Arte N. 37-38, Gennaio- Giugno (2009). p. 66, fig. 12
    Fliegel, Stephen N., and Stephen N. Fliegel. A Higher Contemplation: Sacred Meaning in the Christian Art of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2012. p. 36, fig. 27
    Carr, Annemarie Weyl, Lynn Jones, and Kathleen Maxwell. Byzantine Images and Their Afterlives: Essays in Honor of Annemarie Weyl Carr. 2014. p. 248, fig. 12.8-12.9
    Flora, Holly. Cimabue and the Franciscans. Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2018. Mentioned: p. 209; Reproduced: p. 210, fig. 6.8
  • Cimabue a Pisa. Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa, Pisa, Italy (organizer) (March 25-June 25, 2005).
  • {{cite web|title=Crucifix with Scenes of the Passion|url=false|author=|year=c. 1230–40|access-date=16 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.5