Master of the Crucifixion of Trevi, The Crucifixion

1320-30
Tempera and gold on wood panel
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

From an altar dorsal with other images of the Passion of Christ. The skull at the base of the small hill identifies the hill as Golgotha, the "Place of the Skull" (Matthew 27:33). Christ's blood flows down onto the skull. a reference to the doctrine that his sacrifice on the cross obtained salvation for mankind. Some other works of this period place Adam at the foot of the hill.

Throughout the Middle Ages it was common to picture angels at the left and right of the crucified Christ. In some 14th-century paintings they may be represented as here in various attitudes of grief.

The man in the Franciscan habit may be the donor.

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Photographed at the Pinacoteca Vaticana by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.