The Crucifixion

Francescuccio Ghissi was a painter from the Marche region active in the Adriatic centers of Fabriano and the surrounding towns, working in a style that blended Giottesque spatial clarity with local Marchigian decorative traditions. This Crucifixion of around 1370, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, reflects the intense Passion devotion that pervaded Italian religious life in the decades following the Black Death. The panel likely formed part of a polyptych altarpiece for a mendicant church.

Painted in egg tempera on gold-ground panel, the Crucifixion employs a centralized composition with the cross flanked by mourning figures, rendered in Ghissi's characteristic firm outlines and vibrant color against elaborate tooled gilding.