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The Crucifixion

ca. 1365

Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez and radio journalist Hana Baba on “The Crucifixion”
Gallery 2

Narrator: Medieval Christian church paintings helped focus worshippers’ prayers, and told stories – especially important when most people couldn’t read.
In this Italian painting, figures around the crucified Christ react with strong emotion. To the left, Christ’s mother Mary, dressed in blue, faints in distress. Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez:
Isabella Lores-Chavez: And behind her is one of the most expressive figures in the whole composition - this figure of Mary Magdalene with her arms raised in despair. She's really conveying such suffering and such anguish.
Narrator: Real gold leaf is used for haloes and background. Imagine how it would’ve gleamed in the candlelight.
Isabella Lores-Chavez: The gold really serves to create a sense of this very precious spiritual depiction.
Narrator: Even more expensive would have been the lapis lazuli stone used to create the brilliant blue of Mary’s robe.
Isabella Lores-Chavez: And lapis lazuli came from Afghanistan and from other parts of Central Asia. So it's a really great reminder of how interconnected Europe was with other parts of the world already in the Middle Ages.
Narrator: The painting was originally part of a much bigger altarpiece. Made of many different panels, its smaller scenes helped illustrate Christ’s life - a bit like a graphic novel sequence.

Luca di Tommè worked prolifically after the first outbreak of the plague in Siena, producing devotional images for a decimated population in mourning. This painting was once the central scene in the lower portion of an altarpiece. Preserving conventions developed by the previous generation of Sienese painters, Luca emphasized his figures’ emotions through expressive gestures. Mary Magdalene, for example, raises her arms in anguish at the sight of Christ crucified. Supple contours and delicate shadows articulate the musculature of his body, isolated against the gold ground. Gold leaf accents throughout and fine punchwork patterns reflect the local taste for surface ornamentation.

Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez and radio journalist Hana Baba on “The Crucifixion”
Gallery 2

Narrator: Medieval Christian church paintings helped focus worshippers’ prayers, and told stories – especially important when most people couldn’t read.
In this Italian painting, figures around the crucified Christ react with strong emotion. To the left, Christ’s mother Mary, dressed in blue, faints in distress. Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez:
Isabella Lores-Chavez: And behind her is one of the most expressive figures in the whole composition - this figure of Mary Magdalene with her arms raised in despair. She's really conveying such suffering and such anguish.
Narrator: Real gold leaf is used for haloes and background. Imagine how it would’ve gleamed in the candlelight.
Isabella Lores-Chavez: The gold really serves to create a sense of this very precious spiritual depiction.
Narrator: Even more expensive would have been the lapis lazuli stone used to create the brilliant blue of Mary’s robe.
Isabella Lores-Chavez: And lapis lazuli came from Afghanistan and from other parts of Central Asia. So it's a really great reminder of how interconnected Europe was with other parts of the world already in the Middle Ages.
Narrator: The painting was originally part of a much bigger altarpiece. Made of many different panels, its smaller scenes helped illustrate Christ’s life - a bit like a graphic novel sequence.

Artist: Luca di Tomme (Italian, active ca. 1355–1389)
Title: The Crucifixion
Date: ca. 1365
Place of Creation: Siena
Object Type: Painting
Medium: Tempera and gold leaf on wood panel
Dimensions: 16 1/8 x 23 1/2 in. (41 x 59.7 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Accession Number: 61.44.3

Achillito Chiesa (1881–1951), Milan, before 1925. [1]
Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878–1955), Florence, by 1927;
Sold to Samuel H. Kress (1863–1955), New York, October 17, 1927; [2]Gift to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1939;Returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, October 15, 1952;Gift to the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 9, 1961;Administrative transfer to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1972.[1] According to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the painting was not included in any of the Chiesa Collection sales at the American Art Association in New York between 1925–1927.[2] Bill of sale, Samuel H. Kress Foundation Archive. Attributed to Antonio Veneziano.
Memphis, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, December 4, 1931–January 1, 1932; Atlanta, High Museum of Art, October 23, 1932–November 22, 1932; Birmingham Public Library Art Gallery, January 12, 1933–February 1, 1933; New Orleans, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, December 12, 1933–March 2, 1933; Museum of Fine Art Houston, March 14, 1933–April 4, 1933; Dallas Public Art Gallery, April 16, 1933–May 10, 1933; Denver Art Museum, May 21, 1933–June 18, 1933; Salt Lake City, Utah Art Institute, August 13, 1933–September 17, 1933; Seattle, Horace C. Henry Art Gallery, September 28, 1933–October 29, 1933; Portland Art Museum, November 8, 1933–November 28, 1933; Sacramento, E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, December 10, 1933–December 28, 1933; San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, January 7, 1934–February 22, 1934; Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, February 28, 1934–April 15, 1934; San Diego Academy of Fine Arts, April 25, 1934–May 27, 1934; San Antonio, Witte Memorial Museum, June 10, 1934–July 1, 1934; Nashville, Parthenon Museum, July 15, 1934–October 10, 1934; Montgomery, Huntingdon College, October 21, 1934–November 11, 1934; Macon, Wesleyan College, November 21, 1934–December 11, 1934; Tampa, Florida Fair, December 23, 1934–January 22, 1935; Winter Park, Rollins College, January 30, 1935–February 24, 1935; Savannah, Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, March 7, 1935–March 31, 1935; Charleston, Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery, April 10, 1935–May 5, 1935; Charlotte, Mint Museum of Art, May 15, 1935–June 2, 1935. "An Exhibition of Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress of New York," no cat. no.Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, April 9, 1965–June 6, 1965. “An Exhibition of Italian Panels and Manuscripts From the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries in Honor of Richard Offner,” no. 31.
Berenson, Bernard “Quadri Senza Casa – Il Trecento Senese - I,” Dedalo 11, no. 5 (October 1930), p. 274, repr. p. 275.
Berenson, Bernard, “Missing Pictures of the Sienese Trecento, Part II,” International Studio (November 1930), p. 27, repr.
“Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Kress For Wide Display,” The Art News 31, no. 12 (December 17, 1932), p. 11.
“San Francisco Sees Famous Kress Collection of Old Masters,” The Art Digest 8, no. 8 (January 15, 1934), p. 32.
Frankfurter, Alfred M., “Fine Italian Paintings from Kress Exhibition,” The Art News 32, no. 22 (March 3, 1934), p. 8.
An Exhibition of Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress of New York, exh. cat., (New York: The Burland Printing Company, 1931–1935), p. 5, repr.
“Kress Gives His Great Italian Collection to National Gallery,” The Art Digest 13, no. 19 (August 1, 1939), p. 17.
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture, cat. (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1941), no. 136, p. 116.
Book of Illustrations, cat. (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1941), no. 136, repr. p. 139.
Suida, William E., The Samuel H. Kress Collection: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, cat. (San Francisco: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1955), p. 32, repr. Frankenstein, Alfred, "City's Own 'National Gallery:' Kress Collection Opens Here," San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 1955, p. 10.
Larsen, Erik, “The Samuel H. Kress Collection at the M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco,” Apollo 61, no. 364 (June 1955), p. 174.
Neumeyer, Alfred, “The Samuel H. Kress Collection of the M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco,” The Art Quarterly 18, no. 3 (Autumn 1955), p. 274.
Meiss, Millard, “Notes on Three Linked Sienese Styles,” The Art Bulletin 45, no. 1 (March 1963), p. 48.
An Exhibition of Italian Painting and Manuscripts from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries in Honor of Richard Offner, exh. cat. (Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1965), no. 31, p. 27, repr.
Rusk Shapley, Fern, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, cat. (London: Phaidon, 1966), vol. 1, p. 59, fig. 157.
Davenport, William, Art Treasures in the West, (Menlo Park, California: Lane Magazine & Book Co., 1966), p. 202, repr.
Berenson, Bernard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and their Works With an Index of Places, Central Italian and North Italian Schools, cat. (London: Phaidon, 1968), vol. 1, pp. 224, 226, 516.
Fehn, Sherwood A., Jr., “Notes on the Exhibition of Sienese Paintings from Dutch Collections,” Burlington Magazine 111, no. 798 (September 1969), p. 574.
Berenson, Bernard, Homeless Paintings of the Renaissance, cat., (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), p. 26, repr.
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-nineteenth-century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, cat. (Cambridge: Harvard University press, 1972), pp. 113, 291, 633.
Fehm, Sherwood A., Jr., The Collaboration of Niccolò Tegliacci and Luca di Tommè, (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1973), Publication no. 5, p. 14, fig. 14.
Maginnis, Hayden B. J., “The Literature of Sienese Trecento Painting, 1945–1975,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 40, no. 3–4 (1977), p. 296.

Sotheby Parke-Bernet, The Robert von Hirsch Collection, Auction catalog, London: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, June 21, 1978, p. 157.
Van Braam, Frederik A., World Collectors Annuary, cat. (Delft: Brouwer, 1978), vol. 30, p. 48.
De Benedictis, Christina, La pittura senese 1330–1370, cat. (Firenze: Salimbeni Libreria Editrice, 1979), pp. 87–88.
Mostra di pere d'arte restaurate nelle provincie di Siena e Grosseto, cat. (Genova: Sagep, 1979), p. 76.
Suida Manning, Bertina, “A Panorama of Italian Painting,” Apollo 111, no. 217 (March 1980), pp. 180–181, repr. pl. 8.
Pope-Hennessy, John, “Some Italian Primitives,” Apollo 118, no. 257 (July 1983), p. 11.
Fehm, Sherwood A., Luca di Tommè: A Sienese Fourteenth-Century Painter, cat. (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986), pp. 13, 22, 46, 70–71, repr. pl. 7.
Manuel Pita Andrade, José and María del Mar Borobia Guerrero, eds., Old Masters: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, cat. (Spain: Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1992), p. 46.
The World’s Master Paintings From the Early Renaissance to the Present Day: A Comprehensive Listing of Works by 1,300 Painters and a Complete Guide to the Locations Worldwide, cat. (New York: Routledge, 1992), vol. 2, p. 297.
Skaug, Erling S., Punch Marks from Giotto to Fra Angelico: Attribution, Chronology, and Workshop Relationships in Tuscan Panel Painting: With Particular Consideration to Florence, c. 1330-1430 (Oslo: ICC Nordic Group, 1994), vol. 1, p. 244; vol. 2, section 7.11.
Lavezzo, Kathy, “Sobs and Sighs Between Women: The Homoerotics of Compassion in the Book of Margery Kempe,” in Premodern Sexualities, eds. Louise Fradenburg and Carla Freccero (New York: Routledge, 1996), p. 185, fig 3.
Palladino Pia, ed., Art and Devotion in Siena After 1350, exh. cat. (San Diego: Timken Museum of Art, 1997), pp. 28–29, 30, repr.

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Social Sharing

Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez and radio journalist Hana Baba on “The Crucifixion” Gallery 2

Transcript

Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez and radio journalist Hana Baba on “The Crucifixion” Gallery 2

Transcript

Provenance

Exhibition History

Bibliography

Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez and radio journalist Hana Baba on “The Crucifixion”
Gallery 2

Curator Isabella Lores-Chavez and radio journalist Hana Baba on “The Crucifixion”
Gallery 2