The Crucifixion

Allegretto Nuzi, the leading painter of Fabriano in the Marche region during the mid-fourteenth century, created this Crucifixion around 1350. Nuzi trained in Florence but developed a distinctive style blending Florentine spatial awareness with the decorative richness of Marchigian tradition. Now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this panel reflects the dissemination of Gothic painting styles from major artistic centers like Florence and Siena to provincial Italian cities.

Executed in egg tempera and gold leaf on panel, this Crucifixion combines Nuzi's Florentine-derived figure modeling with the ornamental gold ground and tooled halos favored in the Marche. The dramatic composition centers on the elongated body of Christ, with mourning figures arranged symmetrically at the cross's base.