crocifisso sagomato

Bernardo Daddi created this shaped Crucifix panel (crocifisso sagomato) around 1348, the year the Black Death devastated Florence. Shaped crucifixes—painted panels cut to follow the silhouette of Christ's body on the cross—were hung above rood screens in Tuscan churches, serving as the primary visual focus of the liturgy. Daddi was one of the last major Florentine painters before the plague, which profoundly disrupted artistic production and social life in the city.

Egg tempera on shaped wooden panel with gold ground and painted terminals showing the mourning Virgin and Saint John. Daddi renders the body of Christ with restrained pathos, employing careful anatomical modeling while maintaining the iconic dignity demanded by the format.