The Crucifixion

This Crucifixion, attributed to Duccio di Buoninsegna or his immediate workshop and dated to around 1322, represents the devotional refinement of the Sienese school in the generation after the Maestà. Duccio transformed the depiction of Christ's suffering from a hieratic symbol into an emotionally affecting narrative, influencing all subsequent Sienese painters. Now in the Manchester Art Gallery, the panel may have served as a private devotional image or the center of a small altarpiece.

Egg tempera on gold-ground panel with Duccio's signature refined modeling of the body of Christ. The composition balances the traditional symmetry of the Crucifixion with expressive grief in the mourning figures, achieved through subtle gesture and facial expression.