The Crucifixion

Sano di Pietro

National Gallery of Art

A man is nailed to a wooden cross, and two people sit, one to each side, on the sand-colored ground with their bodies angled inward, all against a gold background in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin with a greenish cast, and gold halos. The crossbar of the T-shaped cross nearly touches the top edge of the composition. On the cross, Jesus’s body and head are angled to our left. His head tips down, and his eyes are dark slits. Scarlet-red blood streams down his arms from nails in each hand and spurts from a gash over his right ribs. Blood pours from the nail pinning both feet to a shallow ledge down to the ground below. His wavy, honey-blond hair falls over his shoulders, and he has a full, forked beard. Touches of red indicate blood at the points of a ring of thorns around his head. He is nude except for a white loincloth lined with gold down the front around his hips. His body is thin, his ribs visible. The ground around the cross is painted a flat, brown color, which rises in a low mound behind the base of the cross, and up to each side to indicate hills. To our left, a woman sits with one leg folded under her, her other knee raised by her intertwined hands. She looks up at Jesus, her mouth parted and lined with wrinkles. Her brows are gathered over brown eyes. Her face is framed by a white veil, and the powder-blue hood and robe she wears over it is edged with gold. The underside is canary yellow where it turns back across her lap and down the sides of her face. Her raspberry-pink dress underneath is also trimmed with gold at the high neckline and cuffs. She and the person to our right both have rosy cheeks. The person to our right sits with fingers intertwined around one raised knee. That person has chin-length blond hair, a short fringe of bangs across the forehead, arched brows, a long nose, and delicate pink lips are parted. A sky-blue robe is covered with a rose-pink cloak, both edged with gold. The gold background behind all the people is visibly cracked and some areas of red show through. Across the top of the panel is a band of punched dots and incised lines to create a floral pattern. The halos are created with concentric bands of dots and rings punched into the gold background.