Crucifixion

Marco Palmezzano spent almost his whole life in one town, Forlì, in the Romagna, and became its leading painter while nearby Florence and Venice drew away the century's brightest talents. He had trained in the circle of Melozzo da Forlì, the local master known for figures seen sharply from below, and he kept that firm, clear manner long after taste in the big cities had moved on. He painted the Crucifixion many times for churches across the region, and this version, from around 1510, is built the way he liked it: Christ on the cross above a wide, luminous landscape, with Mary and Mary Magdalene at the foot. The light is precise and almost metallic, catching the far hills and the small trees that trail off toward the horizon.