Crucifixion

For more than a century, Christ's loincloth on this panel lay hidden under later overpainting. A photograph from 1905 already shows it. In 2014 a restorer removed it and, checking under ultraviolet light, found Frueauf's original beneath in good condition, a thin, transparent veil like the one in the Flagellation. The body hangs from a cross of rough timber, the INRI scroll nailed where the beams meet. Mary sinks into the arms of John and the holy women, and every hand in their group is painted with the fingers slightly open. Opposite stands an old bearded man in red with one hand raised, beside a soldier in black armour and a fur hat. A skull lies in the grass at the foot of the cross, and on the other side a small white dog looks up at them.