The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion, painted in 1747 and now in the Saint Louis Art Museum, is a major devotional canvas from the same period as Tiepolo's ceiling for the Scuola dei Carmini and his altarpiece programs for Venetian churches. The year 1747 also marks the beginning of his work on the Villa Valmarana frescos near Vicenza, one of his greatest secular commissions, demonstrating how he maintained simultaneous production in religious and mythological subjects at the highest level. Tiepolo's Crucifixion takes a broader view of the event than the intimate Pietà tradition, including the crowd of soldiers, mourning women, and criminal companions that the Gospel accounts describe. His treatment of the darkened sky and illuminated figure of Christ reflects his study of sixteenth-century Venetian Crucifixion paintings, particularly Tintoretto's famous versions for the Scuola di San Rocco. The Saint Louis Art Museum, housed in the 1904 World's Fair building designed by Cass Gilbert, holds this work as part of a significant European painting collection assembled through museum purchase and donor gifts.

Dramatic sky and strong chiaroscuro create an atmosphere of cosmic upheaval around the cross. The elongated figure of Christ and the turbulent drapery of the mourning figures generate powerful vertical movement through the composition.