Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John

In the first half of the 14th century the Scaliger lords ruled Verona as vicars of the Holy Roman Emperor, and the city looked north across the Alps as much as south. This group shows it. Christ hangs on a roughly cut tree trunk, a kind of cross the museum traces to German tradition. He screams, mouth gaping and eyes distorted, an expression the museum describes as going beyond all bounds in Italian art. Arms, ribs and folds of cloth meet in sharp angles and ridges, like a body caught in spasm.

The figures come from the church of Santi Giacomo e Lazzaro alla Tomba, which was part of the old lazaretto, the hospital for plague victims and the incurably ill. The Virgin and Saint John were once turned toward Christ, as an inscription on the Virgin's base makes clear, and the group had more figures than the three that survive. All of it was painted. Only the preparatory layer that lay under the colour is left.