Angelico, Fra (c.1395-1455)
Crocifissione (The Crucifixion)
c.1440
Tempera transferred to canvas, laid down on wood, gold ground, 34 x 50.2 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
To the left of the Crucifixion are shown Saints Monica, her son Augustine, and Peter Martyr; to the right are Saints Dominic, Francis, and Elizabeth of Hungary. This damaged but poignant picture was painted in the 1440s, when Fra Angelico and his workshop were decorating the convent of San Marco in Florence with a cycle of frescoes financed by Cosimo de’ Medici. The picture may well have been painted for Cosimo and is listed in a 1492 inventory of the Medici Palace. As in the San Marco frescoes, saints born hundreds of years after the Crucifixion are shown experiencing the event as an extension of their meditations.
The background is regilt. (MET)
See also:
• Augustine of Hippo (354-430)