Die Kreuzigung

Bramantino took his very name from Bramante, the architect of the new Saint Peter's, whom he followed as a young man in Milan, and you can feel the architect in this Crucifixion: everything is laid out with cool, deliberate symmetry. The three crosses stand against a wide pale sky. An angel and a small dark demon kneel on either side of Christ, and up in the corners the sun and the moon are given human faces, looking on. It is a strange, austere picture, and it may have been too strange for its first home. One old account has it hanging briefly in Milan Cathedral around 1515 and then taken down for its unusual imagery, at a time when the city was full of arguments about reforming the Church. Its original owner and purpose are still unknown.