Paolo Uccello?, Processional cross

Author
Workshop of Paolo Uccello(?)
Date
Mid-15th cent.
Collocation
Sala delle cantorie
Original location
Cathedral
Dimensions
Height: 105,8 cm; Width: 66,5 cm; Thickness: 8 cm;

Wooden Crucifix, a reliquary, carved and decorated with scenes from the Passion. Usually attributed to Paolo Uccello workshop and dating back to the mid-15th century. The Crucifix has a medallion at its centre that used to contain a relic, almost certainly a fragment of the True Cross which arrived in Florence from Constantinople in 1454. The arms of the cross are decorated with scenes from the Passion: on the horizontal arm we have two praying angels and Mary and Saint John mourning for Jesus; in the vertical arm we see Christ with the crown of thorns and below a scene from the Crucifixion. These paintings are reminiscent of the work of Paolo Uccello who, in the 1430s and 40s, had frescoed the great clock of the counter façade and the equestrian monument to John Hawkwood within the Cathedral. 

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Sala delle Cantorie