Painted crucifix

A painted cross like this was ordinary church equipment in the Florence of around 1317. It was not made to be studied up close. It hung high, above the choir screen or the altar, and the people in the nave read it from far below. That is why the grieving Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist are pushed right out to the ends of the arms, while the body of Christ is the one thing that carries the whole length of the church. The panel itself is cut and gilded in the shape of the cross. Today the work belongs to the Uffizi, though for years it has hung on long-term loan at the Colombaria, a Florentine academy of letters, and no longer in any church.