Giovanni di Balduccio (attr.), Crucifix
- Author
- Giovanni di Balduccio (attr.)
- Date
- 1300-1349
- Collocation
- Sala della Maddalena
- Original location
- Baptistery of Saint John
- Material
- Wood, pigments
- Technique
- Sculpture, painting
- Dimensions
- Height: 176 cm; Width: 171 cm; Depth: 45 cm;
- Material
- Wood, pigments
- Scheda Arnolfo
- Crocifisso del Battistero
Crucifix, in polychrome wood, attributed to Giovanni di Balduccio and dated around 1330. Originally this Crucifix was placed on an altar inside the Baptistery, on the north-east side but, being equipped with movable shoulders, it was also used for devotional practices, detaching him from the cross and placing him lying down with his arms at his sides to represent him deposed. Due to its ancient double representative function, the sculpture was conceived to be aimed at devotional pietism, that is, at the emotion of the faithful observer. The dimensions are life-sized, the anatomy is nervous, the color of the skin is brown tending towards bloodless yellow, the head is reclined and characterized by the impressive details of the half-open mouth in the last breath and the eyes, glassy, rolled over in pain. The blood gushing from the hands, feet, side and forehead runs with liquid naturalness through the depressions and swellings of the body. Precisely the element of blood, combined with the pallor of the flesh, are Eucharistic references to the wine and bread of the Eucharist, the central sacrament of the Catholic faith, which was celebrated during mass on the altar on which the crucifix was fixed.