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The Crucifixion
The Art Institute of Chicago

The Crucifixion

Tempera on panelCarlo Crivelli (Italian, about 1430–about 1495)/c. 1487

Description

Carlo Crivelli’s vivid style married the beautiful with the grotesque. Here, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist gaze in anguish at Jesus on the cross. Crivelli enhanced the scene’s morbidness by depicting Jesus emaciated and puffy-eyed, his mouth agape, with blood dripping from his wounds. As subtle hints toward his eventual victory over death, wind animates his loincloth and inflates the sail of a boat in the distance, while verdant plants shoot up from cracks in the rocky, arid terrain.

Provenance

Alexander Barker (died 1874) and his executors, London; sold Christie’s, London, June 21, 1879, no. 472, to Lesser for £100 16s [annotated catalogue at Frick Art Reference Library]. Baron E. de Beurnonville, Paris; offered for sale but bought in, Charles Pillet, Paris, May 9–16, 1881, no. 632; sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 21–22, 1883, no.126, for Fr 2,800 [Mireur 1911]. Joseph Spiridon, Rome, probably by 1883 [the catalogue of the 1929 Spiridon sale erroneously states that it was acquired from Beurnonville in 1876]; sold Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, May 31, 1929, no. 15, pl. 23, to Knoedler for 250,000 marks [annotated catalogue at Getty Center]; sold by Knoedler, London, to Art Institute, 1929.

Dimensions

75 × 55.2 cm (29 9/16 × 21 3/4 in.)

Movement / Period

15th century

Accession No

111622

Official Citations

[The Art Institute of Chicago Official Record][Full Resolution Image]
Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of Carlo Crivelli (Italian, about 1430–about 1495)

15th century • Italy • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries